Low cost airlines continue to edge closer to becoming the most preferred mode of domestic air travel for Indians th is summer. Together, these carriers have captured almost 48 per cent of the market share in April this year, up from last year’s approximately 43-44 per cent, reveal the latest data released by the Ministry of Civil Aviation.Driving the surge are airlines like IndiGo and SpiceJet, which are finding an increasing number of takers in the wake of rising air ticket prices. Of the nearly 40 lakh passengers that took to the skies in April, around 4.5 lakh (11.5 per cent) travelled by IndiGo — a gain of 1 per cent market share since the January-March quarter of this year. The airline had commanded a modest 5 per cent market share just a year earlier. SpiceJet too continued to remain strong, capturing 10.1 per cent market share in April, compared to roughly 8 per cent in the year-ago period. The Wadia-group promoted GoAir increased its share in April, capturing 4.6 per cent of domestic air travellers against 3.2 per cent in the same month last year. JetLite, the low cost arm of market leader Jet Airways too managed to retain an 8 per cent market share.Significantly, the airline that pioneered the low-cost concept Deccan Airways was the only one whose share fell in April this year. Between January and March this year, it commanded a market share of 14.6 per cent which fell to 13.6 per cent in April. The airline’s share for the same period last year stood at a much healthier 18.6 per cent. The reduced preference for Deccan has been one of the major reasons low-cost carriers, put together, have been unable to command over 50 per cent market share this summer.Deccan’s loss however, has been its sister concern Kingfisher’s gain. The latter managed to carry 14.3 per cent of the travellers this April, around 4 percentage points more than last year. Jet Airways’ share of 21.6 per cent in April was a percentage point lower than the January-March quarter, indicating tough times ahead for the country’s premier domestic airline. State-run , Indian, meanwhile, managed to marginally increase its share to over 15 per cent in April, compared to 14.7 per cent in the first quarter of this year.
