Airlines: India
This is a collection of articles archived for the excellence of their content. |
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2017 (international)
See graphics :
International airlines' ranks, market-shares, 2017
International Airlines price and service, as on June 10, 2017
international traffic,
passengers flown by Indian carriers in and out of India,
passengers flown by foreign carriers in and out of India, 2016-17
From: Saurabh Sinha, Indian carriers’ share in int’l traffic up by 2.6%, February 21, 2018: The Times of India
This is one “made by Indians” programme that is showing the desired results.
Last year, 5.9 crore people flew in and out of India — up 11.3% from 5.3 crore in 2016. Indian carriers saw their share in this traffic going up to 38.6%, up a significant 2.6% in just one year from 36% in 2016. The jump came mainly on the back of a solid 58% increase in international passengers flown by IndiGo, followed by soon-to-be-privatised Air India express which saw 20% jump in this traffic.
Since the liberal grant of bilaterals to the Gulf, especially Dubai, by the previous UPA regime had become a controversy, the Modi government has not given more flying rights despite demand from all big players like Emirates, Qatar Airways and Etihad. As a result, the 11% growth in international traffic to and from India seen in 2017 over 2016 is mainly a result of more passengers being carried by Indian airlines.
Five Indian airlines fly abroad — Air India, AI Express, Jet Airways, IndiGo and SpiceJet. In 2016, these five accounted for 1.9 crore of the 5.3 crore passengers who flew in and out of India, which means a share of 36% in overall traffic. In 2017, they accounted for 2.3 crore of the 5.9 crore international traffic which saw their share go up to 38.6% — a jump of 2.6% in just a year.
But where the ‘tortoise’ of Indian carriers of overtook the ‘hare’ of foreign carriers is in these numbers. The five desi airlines saw 21% jump in international passengers in 2017 over 2016 while the growth for foreign carriers was less than a third at 5.9%.
To be sure, a major part of this growth in passenger carriage by Indian carriers is to nearby countries where the single aisle planes of IndiGo (A-320) and AI Express (B-737) fly. The medium and long haul market is dominated by foreign airlines as only AI (up to US and Australia) and Jet (farthest destination being Toronto) fly to the distant places.
“IndiGo has been growing aggressively by adding flights to nearby countries which has seen this mega jump in its international traffic. Had the engine crisis on the Airbus A-320 Neo not slowed down delivery of new planes to IndiGo and GoAir (which does not fly abroad currently), this year would have seen a much bigger jump in share of Indian carriers in overall international traffic to and from the country. GoAir has officially blamed delayed delivery of Neos as the reason for its launch of international flights getting postponed,” said an airline official who did not wish to be quoted.
Combined with the domestic traffic of 11.7 crore, India saw 17.6 crore air travellers last year — up 15.8% from 15.2 crore in 2016.
The growth comes mainly on account of planes flying fuller as major Indian airports like Delhi and Mumbai face a crippling shortage of aviation infrastructure and are unable to handle more flights.
What airlines find hard to believe is the slow rate at which airport capacity is being added in India despite the country being the world’s fastest growing aviation market. A case in point is Delhi which despite having adequate free land has not not built a single new runway or terminal since 2010 when IGI Airport got its third airstrip and terminal 3. Mumbai’s airport has no place to augment infra and now the mega city can get more flights only when the second airport gets ready in Navi Mumbai.
2018, Oct
The market share and aircraft occupancy of airlines in India.
From: November 23, 2018: The Times of India
See graphic:
The number of domestic passengers flown by airlines in India in October 2017 and 2018.
The market share and aircraft occupancy of airlines in India.
2018 vis-à-vis 2017
Saurabh Sinha, AI, arm narrows gap with Jet-Etihad, March 13, 2019: The Times of India
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From: Saurabh Sinha, AI, arm narrows gap with Jet-Etihad, March 13, 2019: The Times of India
IndiGo Pips Air India Express To Become Fourth Largest In International Travel
India saw 6.3 crore international travellers last year, up 7.3% from 5.9 crore in 2017. While Jet Airways remained the single-largest airline for flying people in and out of India, its financial troubles coupled with the downsizing of partner Etihad, saw the two airlines together account for 1.06 crore international travellers, down from 1.1 crore in 2017. In fact, the Air India and AI Express together flew almost as many people in and out of India last year as the Jet-Etihad combine, with the latter ahead by just 20,000 passengers. Incidentally, the AIAI Express carried more than 1 crore international passengers for the first time last year.
The year also saw some significant shake-ups in the top-10 list of standalone airlines for international travel. While Jet, AI and Emirates retained the top three in 2018 like 2017, IndiGo pipped AI Express to become the fourth-largest international player in India last year. On the back of adding a-plane-a-week in 2018 and deploying additional capacity on international routes, IndiGo saw its overseas passengers number swell 48% to 41.8 lakh from 28.3 lakh in 2017. AI Express swapped places with IndiGo and became the fifth biggest player.
SpiceJet moved from number 9 in 2017 to 7 in 2018 by overtaking Qatar Airways and Oman Air for international travel to and from India last year. Sri Lankan, which is successfully replicating the Gulf airlines’ model of flying people between India and rest of the world through their hubs, occupied the number 9 slot. Qatar Airways, which was the seventh largest international airline in terms of flying passengers to and from India in 2017, is now at number 10.
GoAir became the sixth Indian carrier to start flying abroad (after AI, AI Express, Jet, IndiGo and SpiceJet) last October. It saw 42,478 international flyers last year. The request of Tata Group JV airlines, Vistara and AirAsia India to start flights abroad is being reviewed by the government.
In 2018, Indian carriers accounted for 40% of the international passengers to and from India, up from 38.6% in 2017.
“The 7.2% growth of international travel could have been much more but was constrained by two factors. One was India not hiking flying rights of airlines like Emirates, Qatar Airways, Singapore Airlines and Turkish. And, second was the slot constraints at Indian airports, especially three metros — Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore — which makes it very difficult to add flights there. As a result, we have seen a rather subdued growth,” said a senior airline official.
