Air India clocks 16.7% growth in number of passengers

Backed by an increased demand and summer holiday bookings, national air-carrier Air India has clocked a 16.7% growth in the number of passengers in first half of May as compared to the corresponding period last year.

Air India registered a 16.7% growth in the daily average passenger carriage in the first half of May, 2010 as compared to the same period of the previous year, a press release said in Mumbai today.

The average daily passenger carriage of the airline (both domestic and international) stood at 45,900 in the first half of this month as against 39,350 passengers which the airline flew during the corresponding period last year, it said.

The 16.7% growth comes close on the heels of Air India posting a 19.7% increase in its passenger traffic in April, 2010 over April 2009. The airline carried an average of 44,000 passengers across its flights in April this year as against 36,750 passengers in April 2009.

According to Air India, while the domestic market witnessed a growth of 22% in the January-April period this year compared to the same period last year, its domestic traffic posted a growth of 26%.

At the same time, the national airline had the least number of complaints against its services as compared to two major private air-carriers -- Jet Airways and Kingfisher Airlines -- during April this year. 

As per the directorate general of civil aviation, there were only 0.6 complaints per 10,000 passengers lodged against Air India as against industry average of 3.5 complaints per 10,000 passengers.

While Naresh Goyal-owned Jet Airways and its budget arm, JetLite topped the list with 7.6 and 5.4 complaints per 10,000 passengers respectively, Kingfisher Airlines saw two complaints per 10,000 passengers during April this year, the release said.

Moreover, Air India also had fewer cancellation of flights with only 1.9% while the industry average for cancellation of flights was 2.5% in April 2010, the release added.