Question : Growth of Domestic Air Passengers

(a) the details of pattern of growth of domestic air passengers in terms of percentage during the last three years in the country;

(b) the current share of Air India out of the total domestic air traffic in the country;

(c) the steps taken by the Government to increase the share of Air India in the domestic air traffic;

(d) whether domestic air passengers have increased in second and third quarter of current financial year, if so, the details thereof;

(e) whether the Government proposes to connect religious and tourist spots in the country under UDAN scheme; and

(f) if so, the timeline set by the Government for the said scheme?

The Minister of State in the Ministry of CIVIL AVIATION
(Shri Jayant Sinha)

(a): The details of growth of domestic air passenger traffic on scheduled operations in the country during last three years 2014-15, 2015-16 & 2016-17 are at Annexure.;

(b): The share of Air India Limited in scheduled services of domestic air passenger traffic for the year 2016-17 in the country is also at Annexure.;

(c): The following steps amongst have been taken by Air India to improve market share:;

i. Introduction of new routes.;

ii. Preferred seat selection on domestic and international routes.;

iii. Flash sale of seats to increase revenue and Passenger Load Factor.;

iv. To utilise unsold inventory/launching of airfare equivalent to Rajdhani II AC fare on select sectors.;

v. Dynamic pricing and introduction of Advance Purchase Fare.;

vi. Various Sales and Marketing initiatives.;

vii. Joining of Star Alliance.;

(d): The details of increase in domestic air passenger traffic on scheduled operations in second and third quarters of financial year 2017-18 is given at Annexure.;

(e) & (f): Ministry of Civil Aviation has launched Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS)-UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik) scheme on 21-10-2016 for providing connectivity to un-served and under-served airports of the country. The primary objective of RCS is to facilitate / stimulate regional air connectivity by making it affordable. RCS-UDAN is a demand-driven scheme, where airline operators undertake assessment of demand on particular routes from time to time.