Christmas surge in flights

New Delhi: The carriers are having trouble accommodating the surge. This weekend, more than 100,000 people will criss-cross the country on various airlines, setting a record of sorts. Public sector Indian (Indian Airlines) has so far reported more than 36,235 bookings across various destinations on December 23.
December has been hectic. The government-owned carrier flew more than 29,000 people on two days of the month (December 15 and December 20) and more than 28,000 on another two days — December 10 and December 12.
The economy carriers are also raking in the moolah. The country’s first low-cost carrier (LCC), Air Deccan is flying to “near capacity” and has booked 23,5000 passengers for various flights on Saturday, representing close to 98 per cent load factor of its total capacity of nearly 24,000 seats.
Official figures of other airlines also showed similar trends. Travel industry analysts said almost all of them would be flying near capacity on December 23. The industry on the whole has a total capacity of over 100,000 seats per day operating more than 1,200 flights daily.
21/12/06 Gaurav Choudhury/Hindustan Times

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