The Hindu Business Line : Domestic airlines report 15% fall in passenger traffic in April

New Delhi, May 13 There has been about 15 per cent decline in the number of passengers carried by the domestic airlines in April this year compared with April 2008. This is the fourth successive month this year that the airline industry has carried fewer passengers than previously.

The latest data released by the Directorate-General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) shows that the nine scheduled domestic airlines carried 33.15 lakh passengers, which is 5.77 lakh fewer passengers than those flown in April last year. In April this year, the Chennai-based Paramount Airways was the only airline to have bucked the trend having carried 75,000 passengers, up from the 48,000 passengers carried previously. The low-cost airline, IndiGo, also saw a marginal increase in passengers carried in April this year compared with April 2008.

Jet Airways was the worst affected having flown 2.8 lakh fewer passengers (8.39 lakh).

Low-cost airlines

Except IndiGo, the low-cost airlines, which have been carrying more passengers in the pervious months this year, were also affected.

In April this year, SpiceJet flew 3.87 lakh passengers against 3.94 lakh in April 2008.

The industry has already launched a series of initiatives to attract the passengers. While Jet Airways has started operations with an all-economy class low-fare service called Jet Airways Konnect from May 15, Kingfisher will convert more than 20 flights to Kingfisher Red, its low-cost cousin.

Air India domestic is also said to be considering having a three-class configuration on its flights to attract more passengers.

Jet Airways is also considering the option of leasing out some of the narrow body Boeing 737 aircraft in its fleet, the airlines’ Chief Commercial Officer, Mr Sudheer Raghavan, said recently. The Boeing 737 aircraft is primarily used by the airline on its domestic routes.

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