IA trumps Jet in May as leading airline

State-owned carrier Indian Airlines has squeezed past rival Jet Airways to emerge as the largest airline in terms of market share in the country in May. The airline has cornered 23 per cent market share against 22.5 per cent recorded by the private Jet Airways (excluding Air Sahara).

Indian Airlines, which had been the second largest airline in terms of market share, had lost even this position to budget carrier Air Deccan in July 2006.

Later in April 2007, Indian Airlines jumped to the number two slot thanks to an aggressive marketing initiative, coupled with the crashing of Air Deccan's reservation system for a few days.

The market share of Indian Airlines in April was at 22 per cent, while that of Jet Airways was at 22.3 per cent. Air Sahara, rechristened JetLite after being acquired by Jet Airways, has maintained a market share of 6.8 per cent in May against 7.1 per cent. 
 

PIE IN THE SKY
Carrier	April 07	May 07
IA	22	23
Jet	22.3	22.5
AD	18.3	18
SJ	8.3	8.2
IndG	6.3	6.9
AS	7.1	6.8
Go	3.2	3.6
PA	1.5	1.5

The Vijay Mallya-promoted Kingfisher Airlines, which has recently picked up 26 per cent stake in Air Deccan, has improved its position to 12.2 per cent in May against 10.9 per cent in April.

"The aggressive marketing initiatives by Indian Airlines and the emergence of Kingfisher Airlines as a potential competitor to Jet Airways in services have helped the national carrier to grab the top slot," industry analysts pointed out.

Commenting on the market share, Indian Airlines officials said the carrier was always the number one in the domestic circuit, in terms of revenue per kilometers per day.

Jet executives said the latest data was not available and added that it was irrelevant to consider the standalone market share of Jet Airways, excluding JetLite, as the latter was very much a part of Jet. "Indian Airlines has been dropping fares to garner market share. The spot fares of Indian Airlines is cheaper than low-fare carriers.

The carrier was offering tickets at throw-away prices on the premium economy fares, surf and save schemes and other similar schemes," said a senior executive of a leading low-cost carrier.

According to highly placed sources, SpiceJet garnered 8.2 per cent market share (8.3 per cent in April), Air Deccan 18 per cent (18.3 per cent), and IndiGo 6.9 per cent (6.3 per cent) in May.