Domestic airlines set to fly 50 lakh passengers in December

New Delhi/Mumbai: The domestic airline industry is a breath away from breaching another barrier — carrying 50 lakh passengers in a single month. In December 2009, the industry had flown 44.87 lakh passengers.
A cross-section of industry told Business Line that with forward bookings for this month looking “very healthy,” the half-million passenger carriage mark should be crossed for the first time this December.
Sources indicated that the bookings received for December 24 alone — which is likely to be above 1.75 lakh passengers — has given a boost to the industry.
The increase in passenger carriage has been achieved by the industry despite last-minute fares being very high. While airline operators were not available for comment, travel agents said that the economic boom and the increased spending power are reasons for the trend, which has been buoyed by the holiday season.
Frost & Sullivan's analyst for aerospace and defence, Mr John Siddharth, pointed out that the Indian aviation sector is one of the fastest growing markets globally, and the Indian air travel passenger market is expected to surpass the 50-million or 5-crore passenger mark in 2010. During calendar 2009, the industry flew 4.39 crore passengers.
24/12/10 Ashwini Phadnis/Shubhra Tandon

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Categories: Indian Aviation- In General Dec 2010