Domestic air passenger traffic shows upward climb

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It’s Not As High As It Used To Be During Low-Fare Boom, But Many See This As Silver Lining In Dark Clouds Of Slowdown
V Ayyappan TNN

Feb 26, 2009

Chennai: Domestic passenger traffic at Chennai airport continued its upward climb, month on month, in January. This refreshing trend comes even though passenger movement reduced by 11% last month when compared to the corresponding period in 2008. According to statistics compiled by Airports Authority of India (AAI), the domestic passenger movement has increased from 5.08 lakh in December 2008 to 5.27 lakh in January 2009, maintaining an upward growth since November. “Airlines flew more passengers because of low air fares and special offers introduced by them because of a cut in global jet fuel prices in January,” said an airport official. Aviation turbine fuel prices were reduced thrice in January and Air India, Spice-Jet, Indigo and others introduced several low-fare offers to lure travellers onboard,” said an AAI official. It was Air India led the fare war. Even though the growth in passenger traffic is heartening, it is not as high as the airlines had expected it to be. “So airlines have increased their fares once again and scrapped special offers in February,” said an Air India official. Figures show that the rate of increase in passenger traffic from December to January is lower than that of the increase from November to December. Domestic passenger movement increased by 18,577 from December to January, while the increase was close to 60,000 from November to December. Whether the upward swing will continue remains to be seen because airlines have increased their fares in February. They increased the fares in order to meet operational expenses and also because the low fares had failed to cause a dramatic growth in the number of passengers. Still, many see the upward swing — even though it is marginal — as signs of a possible revival of the aviation boom. As many as 5.08 lakh domestic passengers travelled in December because of festivals and holidays, and their number rose to 5.27 lakh in January. Compared to this, only 4.46 lakh passengers flew in and out of Chennai airport in November. With the apexfare boom, the airport saw an average of 7 lakh passengers every month. In May 2008, when the downward slide began, the airport recorded 6.36 lakh domestic passengers.