- The growth in India’s air travellers has flat-lined for the first time in over four years.
- Too many planes got grounded in March 2019 due to the crises at Boeing and Jet Airways.
- As the number of flights reduced, airfares in India shot through the roof.
India's airlines were betting on a long-period of spectacular growth not very long back. But all those hopes have come crashing down in March as passenger traffic flat-lined last month, for the first time in over four years.
A lot of it has to do with the crises at Boeing and Jet Airways. Airlines across countries, not just in India, had to park their
In India, cash-strapped Jet Airways kept losing planes to unpaid lessors to a point where the country's oldest private airline had its final take off last week. As the number of flights decreased, airfares in India shot through the roof. Airports in Delhi, Mumbai, and Bengaluru have been choked repeatedly. The fall in passenger traffic was inevitable.
The signs of a slowdown were visible in the last few months, the growth rate fell to single digits in January and February 2019, far lower compared to the peak growth of 30% witnessed in 2015-2016.