The Hindu Business Line : IA passenger bookings at all-time high

Not only did the airline report 30,232 passengers booking with it on that day, but it also recorded a passenger load factor of more than 90 per cent thereby surpassing the previous record of having carried 27,350 passengers on April 30 this year.

The earlier record of maximum number of bookings being made in a single day on the airline's network was 29,842 on December 21, 2003.

"This is good news for a sector which has been affected by several untoward incidents right from September 11, 2001. It would seem that the upsurge in the economy as also the various promotional schemes being offered by the airline have caught the imagination of the passenger," an airline official said.

The airline has also being seeing a steady increase in the daily number of passenger carried on an annual basis.

While the airline on an average carried 20,575 passengers per day during 2000 this figure fell marginally to 20,253 the following year.

However, following the incidents of September 11, the airline like several global aviation giants saw the average number of passengers flying with it only on a daily basis fall. The airline reported carrying on an average 19,045 passengers during 2002, which rose to 19,766 the following year.

However, the upsurge in the economy during the current year saw the airline carrying 21,469 per day till the end of April this year.