E-Paper
Soaring IndiGo becomes India’s No. 2 airline
In a dramatic increase in its market share, IndiGo – India’s largest low-cost airline – has become the country’s second largest airline, equalling Kingfisher, with a domestic market share of 18.6%. HT reports.
In a dramatic increase in its market share, IndiGo – India’s largest low-cost airline – has become the country’s second largest airline, equalling Kingfisher, with a domestic market share of 18.6%.
In November, the Gurgaon-based budget carrier had displaced Air India (AI) to become the country’s third largest carrier. From a market share of 16.2% in September, it jumped to 18.6% in December, while the market of the other three top carriers — Jet Airways, Kingfisher and AI — declined.
The figures for the month of December were released on Tuesday, a week after the no-frills carrier entered the record books with the single largest order for big jets in commercial aviation industry when it announced a $15.6-billion (about R70,000 crore) deal with Airbus to purchase 180 aircraft.
Meanwhile, air passenger traffic witnessed a growth of 18.7% last year, as compared to 2009. Domestic airlines carried 520.2 lakh passengers in 2010 against 438.4 lakh in 2009. In December, airlines carried 52.1 lakh air passengers.
The last quarter (October to December) of 2010 saw the maximum number of people traveling by air – 147.1 lakh. The third quarter of 2009 had seen 119.8 lakh air travellers. Passengers carried in the second quarter were 134.8 lakh while in the first quarter 118.5 lakh people travelled by air.
The cancellation rate in December was 1.7% with SpiceJet topping the list with 4.9% cancellations. The overall on-time performance (OTP) of airlines was 76.3% in December; Jet topped with 85.4% OTP.
In December, 683 passengers were denied boarding with airlines paying out R15.9 lakh as compensation, which included expenses on refreshments, rebooking and hotel accommodation.
