The Hindu Business Line : Flights going chock-a-block as more Indians travel abroad

SLOWLY but surely, the Indian traveller is going global. In the past couple of months almost all the international airlines operating regular flights to and from India have been reporting high passenger load factors. The trend is likely to continue in the near future.

While most international airlines are cautious about giving out exact figures on the number of passengers carried by them in the past few months, officials do concede that the flights were going chock-a-block.

"In the past couple of months, our flights to and from India have been reporting passenger loads in the high 90 per cent bracket, which is at least five percentage points higher than last year. The situation can only become better as we are moving into the travel season," a spokesman of a major European airline said.

Similarly, the spokesman of another European airline having regular operations to various cities in India said that the airline has been experiencing "quite high passenger loads" in the past few months and the coming months were also looking good. Besides, travel agencies are also reporting heavy demand for tickets of the airline from the South East Asian region also.

Confirming the development, the Managing Director of Amadeus India, Mr Ankur Bhatia, said during March, the outbound travel market recorded the highest growth ever. "There was a jump of almost 40 per cent in outbound travel during March this year as compared to last year. Travellers going to South-East Asia, among other places, are mainly fuelling the growth. Similarly, Europe and the US have witnessed a growth of about 10-15 per cent over last year," Mr Bhatia said.

Concurring with the opinion, the Chairman of STIC, Mr Subhash Goyal, said the tourism industry was the shining star at the moment. "Indians are travelling not only to the West but also to destinations in the Far-East. We are having people asking for packages to Myanmar, Bali and even Australia and New Zealand. There is a heavy movement of travellers to Sri Lanka also, and despite Jet Airways and Air Sahara entering the market recently on this sector, seats are difficult to get," Mr Goyal said.

But what is fuelling this spurt in travel? "With the economy doing well and people having disposable income, the travel industry is bound to grow," Mr Goyal said.