Domestic air travel in India grows at a phenomenal 38 per cent

Could things get better? Domestic air travel has grown at more than 38 per cent in the first seven months of 2007. Between January and July, more than 24.85 million passengers travelled as against 18.03 million in the same period last year. In fact, sources in the civil aviation ministry confirm that the market share of full service airlines has also seen an increase.

The surprising thing is that this comes about at the same time as more and more players are coming into the airlines business.

Leading the pack is Indian Airlines (IA), which saw an increase in its market share from 19.8 per cent to 20.5 per cent. Industry leader Jet Airways saw a jump from 22 per cent to 22.7 per cent.

Jet Lite moved from 6.7 per cent to 7 per cent, while Kingfisher went from 12.8 per cent to 13 per cent. But the marketshare of low-cost carriers (LCCs) dropped. Air Deccan went down from 18.1 per cent to 16.1 per cent, while SpiceJet dropped from 8.3 per cent to 7.7 per cent in the same period.