22.11.11

Of domestic air travel....

Domestic air passenger traffic continues its enviable growth with the country registering an 18% increase this year as compared to last year despite all the turbulence in the aviation sector. That translates to 77 lakh more domestic passengers flown in the period between January and October this year. India has now turned into an apt example of the well-known industry fact that passenger traffic growth need not have a correlation with financial health of airlines. Even as airlines in the country bleed, globally India continued to hog the top slot as far as percentage passenger traffic growth in the domestic sector is concerned. According to DGCA, domestic airlines in India carried 4.9 crore passengers in the Jan-Oct period as compared to 4.2 crore in 2010, making it an 18.3% growth. Then again, IATA’s comparison of domestic passenger growth in six countries (Australia, Brazil, China, India, Japan, US) for September shows India in the lead with an 18% growth in revenue passenger kms (it is the sum of total number of fare-paying passengers and the kms distance they travelled).

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