Domestic scheduled operators carried a total of 40.7 million passengers in 2008, a 5 per cent decrease from 2007. The first eleven months of 2009 showed a reverse trend with a growth rate of 5.5 per cent with a total of 40 m passengers. The growth trend that had prevailed since 2004 had been reversed in 2008 and contraction of passenger volumes continues in 2009. Overcapacity and artificially low fares introduced in the past few years had created a crisis in the Indian airline sector as domestic passenger volumes began contracting by over 20 per cent on a year to year basis. The rise in the cost of aviation turbine fuel which is controlled by the Indian government had forced airlines to charge higher fuel surcharge fees. Indian airline operators reported a combined loss of approx. Rs 40 billion in 2006-07.
Consolidation in the Indian airline sector has taken place with the merger of several airlines during recent years. The merger of Air India and Indian is currently ongoing. Jet Airways acquired Air Sahara (now JetLite) and UB Group of companies (owner of Kingfisher Airlines) has become a major stakeholder of Air Deccan which has now been rebranded as Kingfisher Red. SpiceJet, GoAir and Indigo are the three major low-cost operators. Paramount is a regional full-cost airline connecting various airports in South India while MDLR connects a few cities/towns in Northern India. Regional air carriers are permitted to serve points throughout India excluding metro airports in other regions.
| Month | Passengers (in millions) |
|---|---|
| 2009 | |
| November | 3.96 |
| October | 3.97 |
| September | 3.56 |
| August | 3.63 |
| July | 3.60 |
| June | 3.69 |
| May | 3.93 |
| April | 3.31 |
| March | 3.22 |
| February | 3.34 |
| January | 3.33 |
| 2008 | |
| December | 3.32 |
| November | 3.04 |
| October | 3.13 |
| September | 2.68 |
| August | 2.92 |
| July | 3.05 |
| June | 3.51 |
| May | 4.12 |
| 2007 | |
| December | 4.01 |
| Airline | Passengers (in thousands) |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | January | February | April | August | October |
| Air India | 555 | 574 | 583 | 604 | 740 |
| Go Air | 81 | 84 | 145 | 207 | 215 |
| IndiGo | 457 | 441 | 441 | 505 | 540 |
| Jet Airways | 596 | 597 | 552 | 678 | 785 |
| JetLite | 241 | 249 | 244 | 281 | 314 |
| Kingfisher | 919 | 904 | 861 | 820 | 823 |
| MDLR | 13 | na | 14 | na | na |
| Paramount | 71 | 61 | 75 | 74 | 61 |
| SpiceJet | 393 | 413 | 387 | 447 | 491 |
| Scheduled Operators | |
|---|---|
| Air India |
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| Air India Express |
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| Air India / Indian (IC) |
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| Air India Regional (Alliance Air) |
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| Jet Airways |
Above pic: A Jet Airways B737 at Mumbai's Sahar Airport Terminal IB, used by private airlines. |
| Go Air |
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| IndiGo |
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| JetLite |
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| Kingfisher Airlines |
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| Kingfisher Red |
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| Paramount Airways |
Above pic: A Paramount Airways Embraer 170 jet taxiing at Chennai airport. |
| SpiceJet |
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| MDLR Airlines | Gurgaon-based MDLR Airlines offers flights between from Delhi to Chandigarh, Kullu, Ranchi, Lucknow, Kolkata and Goa. MDLR's fleet comprises of tthree British Aerospace Avro RJ70 jet aircraft. These are the first RJ70's to be operated by an Indian carrier. The 70-seater aircraft are configured in a two class layout, 6 business and 64 in economy class.
|
| All-Cargo/Couries Operators | |
| India Post | The Department of Posts has leased a Boeing 737-200 freighter aircraft from Air India to expedite the delivery of mail and parcels in the North-Eastern region of India. The aircraft has a capacity to carry upto 15 tons of freight. The aircraft is based at Kolkata and flies to Guwahati, Agartala and Imphal. |
| Blue Dart Aviation Ltd. | An air freight company currently operating five converted Being 737-200's and two Boeing 757 freighters. |
| Crescent Air Cargo Services | Operates cargo flights within India, Colombo and Male with a single Fokker F-27 MK50 aircraft. |
| QuickJet Cargo | |
| Deccan Air Cargo | |
| Non-scheduled/Misc Operators | |
| Pawan Hans Helicopters Ltd. | Operates a fleet of 36 helicopters comprising of 17 Dauphin SA365N, 9 Dauphin AS 365N3, 3 Bell 206L4, 4 Bell 407, 2 MI-172 and 1 Robinson R-44. |
| Jagson Airlines | Jagson Airlines' fleet consists of three 20-seater Dornier-228's and one Chetak-III helicopter. Jagson flies from its base in Delhi to Kulu and Shimla and from Mumbai and Pune to Shirdi. Jagson has operates two 26-seater MI-172 helicopters in the North Eastern states.
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| Deccan Aviation Pvt. Ltd. | Offers helicopter charter services. Deccan Aviation's chopper fleet includes of 5 Bell 206, 1 Bell 212, 2 Bell 407, 2 Ecurueil AS 355, 1 Eurocopter AS355F2 helicopters and two fixed wing single turboprop Pilatus PC-12 aircraft. The company launched in 2003 India's first low-cost regional airline, Air Deccan (see Simplifly Deccan above).. |
| India International Airways | Operates one Bell 222 helicopter. |
| Oberoi Aviation | Operates one Hawker 125-700B executive jet and one King Air C-90A turbo-prop. |
| Mesco Airlines | Operates two Ecureil and one M-172 helicopter. |
| Elbee Airlines | Operates three Fokker F27-200's |
| Million Air | Million Air offers a fleet of three helicopters and one Cessna Citation aircraft for charter. |
| Trans Bharat Aviation | Operates 2 Beech 99, one Piper Seneca-IV aircraft, 2 Bell 206 and one Bell 407 helicopter |
| Taj Air | Fleet includes two Falcon 2000 jets. |
| UB Air | UB Air has a fleet of two Bell 212s and one Alouette helicopter. |
| Orient Flights | A Chennai based air charter service provider with a fleet of Piper Seneca III, Beechcraft King Air and Beechjet 400 |
| United Helicharters Pvt. Ltd. | A Chennai based air charter service provider with a fleet of 4 Bell 212, 2 Bell 412 and 2 Sikorsky S76 helicopters. |
| Club One Air | Provides fractional aircraft ownership with a fleet five Cessna Citation Excel's and Citation CII's, three Eurocopter EC135's and one turboprop. |
| Himalayan Heli Services | Specializes in mountain flying with a chopper fleet of two Cheetah/SA 315B and one Chetak SA 316 B. |
| Deccan Express Logistics | India's newest freighter operator under the brand Deccan 360 plans to fly (wef May 27) 5xweekly on a route covering Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Hong Kong and Dubai with Airbus A310F equipment. The company also plans to acquire smaller capacity ATR aricraft for domestic cargo operations. |
| Announced New Airlines | |
Listed below are publicly announced new startup airlines with no flight operations currently. | |
| Flyington Freighters | This Hyderabad-based cargo company has placed an order for six Airbus A330-200F freighter aircraft with the first delivery expected by 2009-10. |
| Star Aviation | |
| Air Dravida | The Chennai based airline has announced plans to launch air services with an initial fleet of three 50-seater CRJ jets. The first service will connect Chennai with Madurai. |
¹ Provisional data | |
Air India's fleet includes Boeing 747-400's/337B Combis, Boeing 777-200 and 300 series, Airbus A310-300s and Airbus A330-200 aircraft flying to destinations across four continents extending from Tokyo in the east to Los Angeles in the west. Air India earned a total revenue of Rs 87.5¹ bn and carried 4.86¹ million passengers in the year ending March 2006 and 105 000 tons of freight during the year ending March 2005.
Air India has firmed orders for 8 Boeing 777-200LR, 15 Boeing 777-300ER and 27 
Air India's low cost airline subsidiary, Air India Express, flies to from 16 Indian cities to international destinations incl. Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, Al Ain, Muscat, Salalah, Bahrain, Doha, Kuwait, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, Dhaka and Colombo with a fleet of Boeing 737-800 aircraft. The airline carried 2.25 million passengers in 2008-09 and operates over 200 flights a week to 14 international destinations.
Indian, now amalgated into Air India, operates Airbus A320s, A321 (the first aircraft to be painted in the new Air India livery) and Airbus A319-112 aircraft. Indian carried approx. 6.6 million passengers in 2008 (770,000 in Oct '09) while total revenues amounted to Rs 60.5 bn in 2005-06. The airline is planning a debut in the stock market with an IPO slated for later this year. Indian operates some 325 daily flights and carried approx. 1.7 million passengers on its international routes.
Airline Allied Services Ltd. was formed in 1983 as an Indian Airlines subsidiary. Alliance Air (brand name) flight operations began in 1996 and its current fleet includes classic Boeing 737-200s (now phased out), Bombardier CRJ jets and ATR-42-320 turboprop aircraft. Alliance Air carried 1.47 million passengers in 2004-05 with load and seat factors of 64 and 61.5 % respectively.
Operating revenues amounted to Rs 6.2 bn in the same year. Five of the aged Boeing 737-200 jets will be converted into freighters.
Alliance has been planned to become Indian's low cost carrier with a fleet of six CRJ's and an equal number of ATR turboprops. Alliance Air nas been rebranded as Air India Regional.
Jet Airways' fleet includes long-range widebodied Boeing 777-35Rs, Airbus A330-203s, Boeing 737s (400-, 700-, 800- and 900-series) and ATR-72-212A/500's turbo-props. Total revenues of the airline amounted to Rs 74 bn in 2006-07 and just over 12 million revenue passengers were carried in 2008. Cargo airlifted totalled almost 142,000 tons in 2006-07.
Jet has ordered 10 Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner long-range jet. Jet Airways acquired Air Sahara in April 2007 and subsequently renamed the 100 per cent subsidiary as Jet Lite. Jet flies to 42 domestic and 18 international destinations with over 330 daily flights. 
Go Air, promoted by the Wadia Group operates flights to Mumbai, Amritsar, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chandigarh, Goa, Kochi, Hyderabad, Delhi, Bagdogra, Srinagar and Jammu. Go Air's fleet consists of Airbus A320-200 aircraft. Go Air carried around one million passengers during its first year of operation ending Nov 2006. The airline operates 377 weekly flights (June '09 status).
This low-cost carrier has a fleet of Airbus A320-232 aircraft.
IndiGo serves the following cities: Delhi, Agartala, Guwahati, Imphal, Pune, Goa, Bangalore, Kolkata, Jaipur, Hyderabad, Chennai, Kochi, Mumbai, Vadodara, Nagpur, Bhubaneswar, Lucknow, Patna, Ahmedabad and Dibrugarh. Indigo has carried over 2.5 m passengers (till Oct '07) since its launch in August 2006. The airline operates over 130 daily flights to 19 destinations.
Jet Airways, which acquired the ertswhile Air Sahara in April 2007, has renamed the airline as JetLite. JetLite's route complements the route network of Jet Airways. JetLite carried approx. 3.1 m passengers in 2007. JetLite operates some 110 daily flights.
Kingfisher Airlines, promoted by the United Breweries Group, operates a fleet of Airbus A330, Airbus A320-232, Airbus A319-132, Airbus A321-231 and ATR-72-500 turboprops. Kingfisher and Kingfisher Red carried approx. 11.3 million passengers in 2008. Kingfisher currently operates over 400 flights a day to 69 destinations across India and a few international destinations. The airline is currently India's largest.
A cabin view of a Kingfisher ATR-72 turboprop. ATR aircraft ply on shorter low-density routes covering mainly tourist destinations and 2nd and 3rd-tier cities.
The vegetarian meals served on Kingfisher Airlines flights are tasty and hot meals are served even on shorter flights, a rarity eg on shorter intra-European flights. A nice touch is the printed menu served to all passengers.
Simplifly Deccan (earlier Air Deccan), now rebranded as Kingfisher Red, was India's pioneering low-cost carrier when launched in 2003. The airline operates a large fleet of ATR-42-320/500 / ATR-72-212A series turbo-props and Airbus A320 aircraft.
Paramount, a regional airline, is headquarted in Chennai and currently provides 50 daily services, mainly within destinations located in South India. Paramount's fleet includes Brazilian 70-seater 
SpiceJet flies to Ahmedabad, Bagdogra, Bangalore, Chennai, Coimbatore, Delhi, Goa, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Jammu, Kochi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Pune, Srinagar, Varanasi and Vizag. The airline carried 4.6 million passengers in 2008-09 and currently (May '09) operates 125 daily flights. SpiceJet operates a single aircraft type fleet (Boeing 737-800/900ER).
