Air India sharply increases domestic market share
26 Dec 2009
Mumbai: National carrier Air India (AI) has sharply increased its share of the domestic market thanks to increased travel and higher capacity. The news is particularly welcome for the carrier as its market share had dipped drastically after a week-long strike by its pilots in September.
AI said its share had gone up to 19% in November, compared to 16.6% in August. A spokesperson for the carrier said this was mainly due to a higher seat load factor. This had gone up from a poor 59% in August, to 90%, currently, in certain sectors.
The carrier also said all its flights connecting metro cities were going full.
AI operates around 400 flights daily.
The airline is also increasing its capacity and is continuing to take delivery of aircraft from Boeing and Airbus. In a Rs45,000 crore deal, struck in 2005, Air India and the pre-merger Indian Airlines had orders a total of 111 aircraft. Of these, 68 orders were placed with Boeing and 43 with Airbus.
The merged entity has so far taken deliveries of 24 Boeing and 21 Airbus aircraft.
