Air passenger growth fails to keep pace with capacity addition

New Delhi: Domestic passenger traffic in the first quarter (January-March) of this calendar year grew by 11 per cent, but the much-talked-about consolidation of capacity was not evident as carriers added more flights and enhanced capacity, which grew by 26 per cent in the same period.
As a result, the gap between the number of seats available and the demand only widened raising serious questions on many of the carriers viability in the coming months. The number of passengers who took to the air between January-March was 12 million while the number of seats offered was virtually double at 20 million seats.
In terms of market share of carriers together, low-cost carriers continued to gain over full-service airlines. But this was primarily because of a substantial increase in the market share by budget carriers SpiceJet and IndiGo even while Jet Lite, Go Air and Deccan lost market share.
Budget carriers together grabbed 46.7 per cent of the market (last year it was 44.5 per cent), the rest being with full-service carriers.
16/04/08 Business Standard

To Read the News in full at Source, Click the Headline

Categories: Indian Aviation- In General Apr 2008