Airlines witness spike in load factors in Feb

Load factors of airlines have seemingly gone up for February. CNBC-TV18's Neha Pandey reports that this may have been achieved by reducing capacity and not necessarily increase in traffic.

There has been a spike in load factors, a measure of occupancy, across most airlines in February.

Flying high! February Load Factors

- Kingfisher up 10.3%

- SpiceJet up 10.2%

- Indigo up 9.8%

- JetLite up 6.7%

- Air India up 6.1%

- Jet Airways up 3.9%

- GoAir up 2%

Spicejet, Indigo and Kingfisher share the top slot with a 10% jump in load factor. Jetlite comes second with a much lower score of 7% more load factor in February. A close third place saw air India with 6% increase in load factor. Jet airways and GoAir have seen 4% and 2% hike in load factor, respectively. But experts say this may have happened by cutting capacity and not a rise in traffic. So, are there signs of revival around the corner?

Industry experts also say airlines sold forward bookings in January, so this increase is a rub off effect of January. Since, Indians normally plan holidays a month in advance, January fares would have a rub off effect till mid march. Therefore it can't be called revival.

Some experts say there has been some reduction in capacities in February, by way of leasing out aircrafts and withdrawing from loss-making routes. And, that may have resulted in higher load factors.