Air traffic down 8%

Domestic air travel is yet to fly out of the rough patch. The first half (January-June) of 2009 has seen traffic fall 8% with 2.11 crore people taking to skies as against 2.28 crore in the same period last year. The only good sign is that June 2009 saw more people flying than same month last year, a first month-on-month reversal in several weak quarters. The other interesting thing in June was that the gap between Kingfisher and Jet narrowed down with Vijay Mallya enjoying the leading 24.4% market share and Naresh Goyal following with 23.9%. Full service carriers continued to report poor load factors—ranging from Jet and AI (domestic)’s figure of 67.8% and 67.9% to Kingfisher’s 72%. Budget carriers fared well with IndiGo and SpiceJet getting 77.3% and 81.7% loads in June. “It is becoming increasingly clear that only LCCs have a sustainable market now. Full service players don’t have too much market beyond the six metros,’’ said an industry observer. However, there was one silver lining for passengers. The aviation ministry’s decision to make on-time performance of airlines public and help people choose a carrier that sticks to schedules, is bearing fruit. Now almost all airlines are reporting about 80% on time performance.