Air India flies high again

It’s a clear case of spring for some and doom for others. At the cost of the beleaguered Kingfisher Airlines having been forced to down shutters, a number of other domestic airlines have gained market share lately in the Indian skies but it’s the national carrier Air India which seems to have made the most of the demise of the Vijay Mallya promoted carrier.  In October, the market share of Air India has gone up to 28 per cent. As per reports on the domestic passenger data Air India has shown a rise from 16.2 per cent in May 2012 to 20.8 per cent in October 2012. In fact it can take some satisfaction from the fact that it is not only the grounding of Kingfisher in October that has triggered the growth. The national airliner has shown a consistent gain in market share through June, July, August and September, as its share increased from 16.8 per cent to 18.2 per cent, stayed at 18.2 per cent and then increased to 19.3 per cent respectively, to reach the figure of 20.8 per cent in October. This means that some of the other measures which the airlines has taken have also paid off. In short, passengers are not opting for Air India because of a lack of options but as a preferred one, which is good news for the airlines.  After years of apathy, strikes, red-tapism and the usual dullness of flying a

babu aircraft kept passengers away, there seems to have been a turn around. The question is, whether it can sustain the growth.

Lately the ministry for civil aviation has taken a number of measures to attract passengers to the airline, including customer-friendly fare schemes, proper maintenance of aircraft schedules and improved utilisation of its aircrafts. It has also promised to further improve on-time performance and passenger load factor, two things that are critical in attracting passengers and ensuring healthy profits. Towards that growth, the recently-launched Jaldi-Jaldi scheme, which offers fair cut by up to half in certain sectors may come as a bonanza for the airlines. As part of this special promotional scheme Mumbai-Delhi fare would be an all-inclusive Rs 3,699 for the period January to March 2013, if the tickets are purchased between a certain period of time in this month. If successful, this scheme is likely to be launched from time to time to boost ticket sales.