DGCA: Air passengers over Indian skies increase by 33% in 2007

New Delhi: The Indian aviation sector continues to fly high ferrying 432.89 lakh people in 2007 as compared to 326.68 lakh passengers ferried in 2006, according to figures released by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). This represents a growth in passengers of 32.51%.

According to the data, all Indian airlines, except Jet Airways, have shown a growth in passenger traffic of between 11-14% in 2007 as compared to the previous year. The largest growth percentage of 686% has been recorded by IndiGo, which enlarged its fleet to 16 aircraft with fresh inductions.

Another airline that nearly doubled its passenger intake on the back of fresh aircraft inductions was GoAir, which recorded a growth of 87%.

Jet Airways, recorded a 3.5% negative growth in passenger traffic, ferrying 96.75 lakh passengers in 2007, as against 100.28 lakh in the previous year. Its market share for 2007, consequently, dipped to 29.9% from 31.2% in the previous year.

But market analysts pointed out that, so far, Jet is the only profitable domestic airline. Probably, it's domestic operations may have dipped as it was more focused on developing international operations.

Consolidation in the industry has also changed rankings with the Jet-Sahara (Jetlite) and Kingfisher-Deccan groups now competing neck-and-neck for the market sweepstakes with a 29.9% share for Jet-Sahara and a 29.3% share for the Vijay Mallya-Capt Gopinath combine.