Air traffic takes a dive for third straight month

In what could be seen as a harbinger of tough times ahead for air carriers, the domestic air passenger traffic has fallen for the third consecutive month this year since May, according to data released by the union civil aviation ministry.

The number of passengers who flew in July was 45.37 lakhs, down 3.84 per cent from 51.08 lakhs in June, and 54.48 lakhs in May. The figure for June and May last year were 53.12 lakhs and 54.96 lakhsrespectively.

The cumulative data for the period January to July this year was encouraging, as the number of passengers who flew stood at 354.52 lakhs, up 1.74 per cent from 348.47 lakhs in the correspoding period last year.  The respective share of the carriers were IndiGo (27 per cent),  Jet Airways (19.4 per cent), Air India (18.2 per cent), SpiceJet (17.8 per cent), JetLite (7.2 percent), Go Air ( 7 per cent) and Kingfisher Airlines 3.4 per cent.

 Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh today told the Lok Sabha that 5,209  complaints of various nature were lodged against various airlines between January and June this year. The maximum complaints were 1,453 against IndiGo, followed by 1,048 against Jet Airways, 847 against GoAir, 794 against SpiceJet, 744 against Air India, 323 against JetLite and 310 against Kingfisher Airlines.

In reply to another question, Singh said civil aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation has taken a total of 504 enforcement actions against the airlines and personnel for violating provisions of the Civil Aviation Requirements (CARs). He also said that between 2009 and 2012, there have been 963 incidents and 15 near miss incidents involving Air India flights. No loss of life occurred and no major damage was caused to the aircraft in these incidents, he said, adding that there were seven near miss incidents in 2009, five in 2010, three in 2011 and none this year.