The Hindu Business Line : Fewer people fly in June; airports see dip in traffic

New Delhi, July 11 The large number of aircraft seen grounded at some airports in the country is but corroborated by the figures of Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) for June.

After recording buoyant growth, the domestic airline industry has reported a decline in passengers carried during June as compared to the same period last year.

Slowdown

Air India has suffered the maximum loss carrying 1.44 lakh passengers less than in the same period last year. It collectively carried 35.06 lakh passengers during the month, almost 1.3 lakh passengers fewer than previously.

The slowdown has been recorded despite Kingfisher, JetLite, SpiceJet, Paramount Airways and IndiGo increasing passenger numbers in June this year compared to the previous year.

Last month, low cost IndiGo reported the largest jump in passenger carriage at 4.22 lakh (2.55 lakh), while SpiceJet carried 3.66 lakh ( 3.03 lakh).

Among others, Kingfisher carried 5.02 lakh passengers in June this year up from 4.70 lakh passengers previously, JetLite flew 2.85 lakh (2.43 lakh), while Paramount transported 46,000 passengers (44,000).

In June, Jet Airways flew the maximum number of passengers at 7.44 lakh (8.01 lakh).

Frequency Axed

Anticipating a slowdown, the domestic industry has already cut back on over 120 daily flights and warn that the number could reach 300 soon.

Jet Airways and its subsidiary, JetLite, announced a temporary reduction in schedules which will see a 10 per cent reduction in flight frequencies of combined fleet.

The Chief Commercial Officer of the new Hyderabad airport, Mr A. Vishwanath, said the number of daily landings now stood at 126, down from 135 about 10 days ago, while the new Bangalore airport has reported a drop of three per cent in air traffic movement which could rise to 10 per cent.

“There has been a decline of about 19 daily flights into Delhi and 16 daily flights into Mumbai. Air Deccan has cancelled or suspended 35 daily flights, JetLite 26 and SpiceJet 21,” officials said.