Air travel up 5% in May courtesy holidays, low fare schemes

Moneycontrol Bureau

Domestic air travel surged around 5 percent  year-on-year in May, reversing the 15-month long trend of declining traffic, according to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation

While Indigo retained numero uno position with a market share of 29.5 percent month-on-month, Jet Airways and subsidiary Jet Konnect duo secured second position with a combined 22.5 percent.

SpiceJet with 19.8 percent share overtook bigger rival Air India which secured 19.1 percent share. Wadia-Group promoted GoAir has 9 percent market share during the period.

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Airlines together carried 5.7 million passengers compared with the year-ago 5.4 million, the aviation regulator said. The marginal rise in traffic can be attributed to the holiday season which came to a close just recently.

One more reason could be flexible fare schemes and discounted fares which airlines like Jet Airways offered for travel till December 31. Also, operators did introduce flexible fare schemes on and off on travel booking engines in preceding months

However, going ahead, airlines will have to fine tune strategies to sustain growth against the backdrop of weakening rupee which is likely to touch Rs 60 against the dollar. Airline operators pay for aviation turbine fuel in dollar denomination and it is around one third of the total expense to any carrier.