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Domestic air traffic has crossed the five lakh mark for the first time ever on Sunday driven by low fares, long-weekend travels and wedding season.
On Sunday, the domestic airlines flew 5,05,412 passengers in 3,173 flights with seat occupancies exceeding 90 per cent.
While airlines saw subdued demand during Diwali festival forcing them to slash fares, there has been a significant pick up in the subsequent days with daily traffic hovering upwards of 4.9 lakh.
Wedding season
“The exceptionally strong wedding season, combined with lower advance fares a few weeks ago for the November travel, has significantly boosted air passenger demand,” said Aloke Bajpai, Group chief Executive Officer,Ixigo.
“We expect the strong demand to continue in winter ,” said Gaurav Patwari, Vice President (Air), Cleartrip.
Increase in the number of flights too helped in passenger growth. Currently, domestic carriers are operating around 3,150-3,180 flights daily which is around 150-180 flights higher compared to last November, an airline executive said.
While IndiGo has launched new flights between PuneandBhopal, it has added the frequencies between Mumbai-Jaipur, Delhi-Ahmedabad and other routes. SpiceJet too has restored some of the flights that it had to cancel earlier because of a fund crunch.
IndiGo’s Senior Vice resident (Network lanning & Revenue Management), Abhijit DasGupta said the record traffic is a reflection of demand pick up in travel season. “ As much as this is exciting news, it is reflective of the pick up in the festive season. Travel demand will continue to oscillate seasonally and will structurally grow in tandem with capacity,” he said.
Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu said the five lakh traffic figure shows that the air travel is now more accessible to the people of India. He added this landmark became possible because of the schemes like UDAN which has brought air travel closer to the people. The UDAN has revolutionised the air travel connecting the remote parts of India to global destinations, added Naidu.
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