The two national carriers Air-India and Indian Airlines have managed to maintain their marketshare for the first nine months of 2002 as compared to 2001.

The airlines together had a market share of 29.9 per cent for the January-September 2002 period.

Foreign airlines maintained a lead with a market share of 70.1 per cent as far as outbound and inbound travel for India is concerned. A-I individually had a market share of 18.8 per cent, while IA had a 11.1 per cent share.

Official sources said that A-I has managed to sustain its market share, with a marginal erosion of 0.4 per cent, as compared to 2001. Foreign airlines have also seen a marginal erosion of 0.8 per cent in market share when compared to 2001.

For January-September 2002, A-I carried 1.78 million passengers, while IA carried 1.05 million passengers. Foreign airlines carried 6.64 million passengers.

Official sources said that since the November and December 2002 were good months for A-I, with its passenger load factor touching 70 per cent, the airlines would improve its marketshare over 2001. The last two months of the year are the traditional peak seasons for the aviation industry.

In January-September 2002, all the airlines put together carried 9.47 million passengers. In 2001, the international passenger traffic was 12 million. It is expected that 2002 may see a marginal increase over the 2001 figures.

The figures for international passenger traffic for the last five years reveal that A-I had been seeing a gradual increase in traffic from 2.15 million in 1997 to a high of 2.29 million in 2000.