On air travel small town Indians' have grounded their cosmopolitan cousins and SpiceJet shows way, shows Airports Authority of India. Even as people in big cities are refraining from travelling by air, travellers from smaller cities have shown preference for flying over other modes of travel. The air travel data between April and December of the current fiscal show that smaller airports in the country have registered an increase in the total number of domestic passengers while airports in larger cities are seeing a decline.
Data compiled by the Airports Authority of India (AAI) show that 17 large international airports have registered a decline during the period. Of the 17 airports, six are private airports that include Delhi and Mumbai and have registered the highest decline of 8.6 per cent followed by 11 other international airports that has seen a decline of 4.5 per cent.
Smaller airports’ increase in domestic passengers, however, did not help the overall numbers from falling.
20/03/13 Mihir Mishra/Financial Express
