Air India domestic ran with 22% flyer load

[sonicboom]

Air India domestic ran with 22% flyer load

Feb 13, 2011, 01.58am IST

MUMBAI: Air India can get into the Guiness Book of World Records: the national carrier would be the only one in the world that operated over 9,000 flights last year with less than one-fourth of its seats occupied.

The average passenger load on Air India's domestic flights was an abysmal 22.2% in 2010, according to statistics released by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation ( DGCA). Air India domestic flight means, AI-coded flights that operate between Indian cities.

The airline operated 9,366 such departures last year. For instance, in the Jeddah-Hyderabad-Mumbai leg, the Hyderabad-Mumbai flight would be the domestic operation of Air India. The 22% passenger load is only for Air India's domestic leg. Air India had an average passenger load factor of 67.9% for its international flights in 2010.

IndiGo had an average passenger load factor of 83.8%, the highest in domestic sector. A passenger load factor is the percentage of passengers carried to the number of seats offered on a particular flight.

Some of the routes on which Air India's Boeing 747s and Boeing 777s fly with one-fourth passenger loads are Hyderabad-Mumbai, Calicut-Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram-Calicut, Ahmedabad-Mumbai. "An airline seat is highly perishable, it is worse than fruits and vegetables," said a top airline official. "The moment the aircraft doors are closed, the empty seats have gone rotten and cannot be sold," he adds.

Said an Air India commander: "There is no dynamic marketing done for these flights." So, on many days, the scene inside a typical Boeing 747 aircraft, say, a Calicut-Kochi flight, is such that the cockpit and cabin crew members outnumber the passengers on board.

Flying jumbo jets on short flights brings added losses. For instance, Air India flies a Boeing 747 between Kochi and Calicut as it has no parking bay in Calicut airport. "The aircraft flies to Kochi only to park. The flying time of about 25 minutes. It flies at 12-13,000 feet and the fuel efficiency is so low that it cuts out whatever profits the airline made on the Jeddah-Calicut sector," he adds.

"With the amount spent on fuel in a month to fly the B747 to and from Kochi, the airline could construct an apron for parking in Calicut airport itself." The worst load factor was in the month of February and March, when it dipped to 17.3 percent. "That would be an international low. It is highly unlikely that any B747 flew with that much load in any part of the world," said a source.



Read more: Air India domestic ran with 22% flyer load - The Times of India Air India domestic ran with 22% flyer load - The Times of India