The Hindu Business Line : Steep hike in IA passenger traffic in April

THE new financial year has proved to be fortuitous for Indian Airlines (IA). The airline carried 27,350 passengers on its network on April 30 which is the highest passenger carriage recorded by IA since December 22, 2000 when it had flown 28,260 passengers.

Official sources told Business Line that on an average IA carried 22,350 passengers every day during April this year which is a significant increase from the average passenger carriage of 17,470 recorded during the same period in the previous year.

Incidentally, the average daily passenger carriage of IA during April this year is higher than what the airline recorded during March this year at 19,950. However, December 2000 seems to have been a good month for the airline with IA carrying 28,285 passengers on December 23.

In the recent past, the airline has taken a number of steps to react proactively to the demands of the market. The IA board had recently cleared a proposal for the airline to acquire not only Airbus A-320 aircraft but also Airbus A-319 aircraft which will be utilised by its 100 per cent subsidiary Alliance Air.

The induction of these aircraft is expected to see the airline offer more choice to the passengers including offering more services between destinations and the option of deciding what time of the day to fly on some of the existing high passenger density routes.

IA and its subsidiary, Alliance Air between them have a mixed fleet of aircraft including the Airbus A-320 and the Boeing 737.