Air Deccan posts record passenger traffic during May

Bangalore, June 5 (UNI) Thanks to buoyant growth in the number of holiday travellers, low cost airlines Air Deccan carried a record 5.33 lakh passengers and achieved 90 to 100 per cent load factor during May this year.

The airlines which had flown over four million passengers since its inception in 2003, increased its number of flights to 250 a day and a network spread of 55 destinations across the country during the current year.

Summer vacationers had again proved to be the stimulant for this growth recorded during May, a company release here said.

During the past one week most of the North and North Eastern Cities had seen 100 per cent load factors, while in other sectors in the country it was more that 90 per cent.

New destinations launched during the year, such as Port Blair, Nagpur, Rajkot, Trichy, Tuticorin, Rajamundry and Trivandrum had received overwhelming response, the release said.

According to the World Travel and Tourism Council, India promises to be one of the foremost tourist growth centres in the coming decade.

The council forecasts that the local travel market is projected to grow by more than eight per cent until 2015, by when the Indian tourism market could generate over 121 billion dollars of economic activity, the release added.

UNI RS RM CS KN1417