Driven by the whopping discounts offered by airlines, domestic passenger traffic in India, increased very marginally, to 3.336 million in February 2009, up from 3.326 million in January.

Kingfisher Airlines retained the top spot as India's largest domestic carrier for the month with 904,000 passengers representing a 27% market share. Jet group which includes the low cost subsidiary Jet Lite had a combined traffic of 846,000 or 25% market share.


IndiGo jumped to the top spot with passenger load factors of 82 per cent.


Airlines are expecting better results in March, the fiscal year end, and in April-May-June, the traditional summer holiday travel period. The massive fare discounts offered in February have also resulted in sales for travel during the holiday period.

The BBC has a really neat series called Britain from above.

Using GPS, data streams, and other modes of tracking, and then super-imposing some really neat visualisations on to maps of the United Kingdom, they have created these superb videos of the 4 modes of traffic. Air, sea, road, and the information superhighway.

I especially enjoy the way the cross-channel ferries dart and dodge through the main traffic flowing up and down the English Channel.



I hope you enjoy the videos. Please do let a comment expressing your thoughts.

Air Traffic over Britain


Ship traffic in the English Channel


Taxi traffic in London


Data traffic to/from the United Kingdom

2008 was a torrid year for domestic airlines in India, as recently released figures by the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) show.

Domestic passenger traffic for the year 2008 fell 5% from 42.58 million to 40.77 million (Fig. 1), driven by the increase in fuel costs, and the massive hikes in air fares, which are yet to fully retreat, and capacity reductions by the airlines.


The Low Cost Carriers (LCCs) Indigo, SpiceJet, and JetLite, improved their market shares at the expense of Full Service Carriers (FCCs) Air India, Jet Airways, and Kingfisher Airlines. IndiGo is the big winner this year with a four per cent market share gain. Air India (the former Indian Airlines), gave up a big three per cent share. (Fig. 2)

The notable exception is Go Air (now called No Go Air due to its numerous flight cancellations), and the former Air Deccan, now christened Kingfisher Red after their acquisition. Kingfisher Red lost five per cent market share, while Kingfisher Airlines gained only three per cent, resulting in an overall loss of two per cent market share to competitors. Clearly the strategy at Kingfisher is not working.


While most airlines and airline groups lost in actual passenger numbers, LCCs IndiGo, SpiceJet, JetLite (the former Air Sahara now a subsidiary of Jet Airways), and Paramount, gained passengers. (Fig. 3).

The capacity swapping at Kingfisher group is clearly visible, and when performance of both Kingfisher Airlines and Kingfisher Red is combined, actual passenger numbers went down 10.5 per cent, from 12.56 million to 11.25 million.


The first two quarters of 2008, provided no clue to the excess capacity in the Indian airline industry. The "perfect storm" of increased fuel prices and reduced economic activity started rearing its ugly head towards the end of Q2 (April, May, June), and kicked the industry in it's teeth in Q3, with a mind numbing 25 per cent drop in traffic. (Fig. 4). Q4 has provided some seasonal relief, but Q1 of 2009 will see numbers dropping back again.


With the exception of Paramount, which has a small niche regional market, all the airlines saw massive drops in passengers in Q3. (Fig. 5). Most airlines staged a recovery in Q4, but the surprise is Jet Airways. It's passenger numbers tanked almost 20 per cent in Q3 and continued the downfall by another 15 per cent in Q4.


The market share of LCCs followed the increase in air fares, as passengers shifted from the FSCs. SpiceJet share in Q3 reflected its financial problems, prior to the Ross bailout. (Fig. 6)

It is an ignominious performance that the pioneer in the air travel bubble, Air Deccan (now Kingfisher Red) has lost over six per cent market share over the year. Clearly many of the "first time flier" passengers have chosen not to repeat, either returning back to trains and buses, or moving to other carriers like IndiGo and SpiceJet.


The data highlights the price sensitive nature of the Indian traveller. IndiGo appears to have a winning formula with its low prices and efficient service. Fancy gimmicks do not work. At a time of economic slowdown, the FSCs have to get their act together quickly. By holding fuel surcharges to unjustifiably high levels, they are surrendering ground to the LCCs and surface transport.

British Airways today, reported its performance for December 2008. The airline's performance is in line with IATA's November 2008 report, which highlights a deepening of the global economic slowdown.

Capacity declines are in line with actual performance. Compared to December 2007, passenger capacity, measured in Available Seat Kilometres (ASK), was down 3 percent, Actual passenger performance, measured in Revenue Passenger Kilometres (RPK), fell by 3.4 per cent, passenger load factor decreased by 0.2 per cent to 76.7 per cent.

It also appears that corporate passengers are belt tightening, and moving to the back of the plane. Premium passenger traffic (first and business class) decreased by 12.1 per cent while economy decreased by a comparatively modest 1.7 per cent.

The alarming fall, which highlights economic slowdown, is in cargo performance, measured in Freight Tonne Kilometres (FTK), fell by 14.3 per cent.

Globally air cargo transports about 35 per cent to 40 per cent of global trade, by value. Globally, air cargo FTK fell by 13.5 per cent in November 2008, when compared to a year ago. The December fall by British Airways, highlight the continuing and rapid decline of global trade, and deepening of the already significant economic slowdown.

2009 will see economies become a lot worse before improving.

Happy 2009.

As we wake up to a new year, I bring you an interesting video I came across on YouTube, which shows the global air traffic over 24 hours. But speeded up to complete in one minute.

Air traffic follows the sun, at its peak during daylight, just like most human activity does.

In the initial stages of the video as it is day time in Asia and evening approaches in the Americas, there is massive activity in the USA, and hordes of flights being launched towards Europe over the Atlantic.

At the same time as morning approaches Europe, the flights start descending on to Europe from both east and west, which then return back mid-day in Europe.

There are interesting patterns along the South East Asia to North East Asia routes, and also South America to the Iberian peninsula.

But the flights to, from, and within the United States, whether trans-Atlantic or trans-Pacific is simply staggering.

I also invite your attention to the number of flights over India at night.

In my April article "Beware .... Pedestrians" I had highlighted the need for pedestrian safety and over-bridges. The closing line in that article was "The last thing we all want to see, is a repeat of the recent Mysore Road incident, and a major dharna blocking traffic for hours on end, on the only decent access road to the airport."

This is the story on the cover page of The Deccan Herald, of today.

Locals block road to airport after mishap
Bangalore, DHNS:

Trouble erupted on the road to the Bengaluru International Airport on Tuesday night after an airpot taxi ran over a pedestrian, Dodda Thimmaiah (55), near Betta Halasur in Chikkajala police limits...

After finding Thimmaiah dead around 8 pm, irate locals stoned several airport taxis and blocked the road for over an hour. All traffic to and from the airport ground to a halt. Police had a harrowing time in reaching the spot as the nearest point — the City — from where they could make it was 9 km away. Once the cops arrived, normalcy returned and traffic resumed.

On Sunday last, another airport taxi was involved in a fatal hit-and-run case. The police have decided to strengthen patrolling on the road.

Almost immediately after BIAL opened, accidents have become a daily norm on NH-7. Despite advice to the contrary, the agency in charge, NHAI, chose to ignore this issue, and Bangaloreans are paying for it, and forcing an already over-stretched police force to manage the hopeless situation.

The BMLTA will address this lack of proper coordination, and it will behoove the Chief Minister of Karnataka to strength the agency.

In the meantime, I can only request my fellow Bangaloreans, to please drive with more care and empathy. Saving 5 minutes is not worth risking anyone's life.