IndiGo pips AI to become No. 3 airline

The countrys largest low-cost airline IndiGo has replaced the state-owned Air India from the No 3 spot in terms of market share in the domestic market in November,the air traffic data released by the Directorate General of Civil aviation has showed.

The countrys largest low-cost airline IndiGo has replaced the state-owned Air India from the No 3 spot in terms of market share in the domestic market in November,the air traffic data released by the Directorate General of Civil aviation (DGCA) has showed.

IndiGo now commands 17.3% share in the domestic market as compared to 17.1% by the public sector Air India. The budget airline carried 8.43 lakh passengers during this month as against 8.36 lakh air travelers flown by the full-service Air India.

With its fleet of 31 Airbus A320 aircraft,IndiGo operates 207 daily flights connecting 22 destinations including all the metro cities and smaller towns such as Agartala,Goa,Guwahati,Dibrugarh,Patna,Pune,Srinagar and Vadodara.

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Its on expected line. IndiGo has expanded very fast and has maintained very high fleet utilisation level. Their flight occupancy is the highest in the industry. We expect them to be No 2 by early 2011, Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA) India head Kapil Kaul said.

The domestic air traffic of scheduled domestic carriers surged 25.1% to 48.75 lakh during November 2010 compared to 38.98 lakh passengers in the corresponding month last year. The domestic air traffic grew 19% to 468.09 lakhs during January-November of 2010 as against 393.53 lakhs in the same period the previous year.

Post economic slowdown,the air traffic market has shifted towards low-cost air travel prompting airlines such as Jet Airways and Kingfisher Airlines move their capacity to their no-frill arms JetKonnect and Kingfisher Red. With air traffic stabilising in the past one year most of the carriers are on expansion mode especially low-cost airlines.

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