Indian traffic rebounds in 2009

Indian airlines carried 44.5 million passengers in 2009, up 7.9% from the prior year, the Ministry of Civil Aviation reported yesterday.

Fourth-quarter traffic soared 30.5% year-over-year to 12.5 million passengers and December traffic rose 34.8% to 4.5 million.

Jet Airways (17.9%) and JetLite (7.5%) led all companies in full-year market share with a combined 25.4%, followed by Kingfisher Airlines at 23.9% and Air India with 17.5%. IndiGo (13.9%) and Spicejet (12.4%) rounded out the top five. Indian carriers cut capacity during the first half of 2009 but registered year-over-year increases in both RPKs and ASKs in each of the year's last six months.

December RPKs rose nearly 40% over the year-ago month, with average load factor surpassing 80% owing to the peak season. IndiGo posted a 90% load factor for the month, with Jet posting the lowest figure at 78.2%.

India's airlines transported 43.8 million passengers on domestic routes in 2009. Kingfisher led the way with a 23.9% share equal to 10.5 million passengers, followed by Jet at 17.9% and AI at 17.5%.