Go no frills and get a crore thrills

Indians are taking wing, literally and figuratively. Over 1 crore Indians will fly with low cost carriers (LCCs) in ’06, a whopping 60% more than in ’05. Cheap fares, attractive promos in which tickets are being sold for as little as Rs 1, 3 and 9, more carriers, rising network and improved connectivity are converting millions of Indians from train/auto travellers to frequent fliers. Targeting destinations and consumers ignored by full service carriers has helped LCCs post a truly impressive set of numbers. LCCs today land at remote outposts like Pathankot, Rajmundry, Hampi and Katra and help an entire region take flight. The low and middle classes, retired people, students and first time travellers have raised the number of passengers carried by LCCs to 62.3 lakh till September ’06, compared to 1.67 crore passengers carried by full service carriers. The LCCs are poised to carry 40 lakh passengers during the last quarter of October-December, taking their passenger volume to a little over 1 crore.

Projection for the current year marks a quantum leap in passenger volume, partly driven by the increased number of LCCs, Go Air and Indigo being the new entrants. Air Deccan, the leader in the LCC market, is set to double its traffic in ’06. “We expect to carry close to 18 lakh passengers from October to December this year,” said GR Gopinath, MD of Deccan Aviation. Air Deccan is estimated to carry 60 lakh passengers for the full year as against 30 lakh in ’05. According to the Directorate General Of Civil Aviation (DGCA), Air Deccan carried 41.1 lakh passengers, SpiceJet carried 15.2 lakh and Go Air carried 5.29 lakh passengers till September ’06. IndiGo, which launched its operations in August, carried 0.71 lakh passengers till September this year. SpiceJet has projected around 7 lakh passengers from October to December.

The total number of passengers to be flown by SpiceJet is expected to touch 23 lakh mark by ’06-end. SpiceJet chairman Siddhanta Sharma said, “We are aiming to fly around 9.5 lakh passengers during January-March ’07.” Other LCCs like Go Air and IndiGo are looking at flying around 5 lakh passengers each during October-December ’06. IndiGo saw 1 lakh fliers in October ’06. IndiGo CEO Bruce Ashby said, “We would like to finish this calendar year with load factors running in the 70-75% range, and we are on track for that.” Full service carrier Jet Airways has carried 75.32 lakh passengers, followed by Indian with 51.57 lakh, Air Sahara (20 lakh) and Kingfisher Airlines (19 lakh). Paramount Airways, mainly operating in the southern skies, had 1.21 lakh passengers. “We are likely to fly close to 10 lakh passengers from October to December ’06,” said Manoj Chacko, GM - sales, Kingfisher Airlines.

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