Domestic air passenger traffic grew by 18.8% during April-Sep

New Delhi: Domestic air passenger traffic in April to September 2011 registered a growth of 18.8 percent from the corresponding period last year, Government today said.

In reply to a question in the Lok Sabha, Civil Aviation Minister Vyalar Ravi said that domestic passenger traffic which was 8.9 crore in 2009-10 had moved up to 10.5 crore in 2010-11.

[caption id="attachment_150397" align="alignleft" width="380" caption="In year 2010-11, total area of encroachment on airport land was 801 acres. Reuters"][/caption]

Air India's market share has shown a decline in the last few years. In years 2007-08, Air India had a market share of 17.9 percent which had fallen to 17.1 percent in 2010-11.

In reply to another question, Ravi said that operations of foreign airlines had increased by 10.91 percent from 3,13,171 seats per week in summer 2008 to 3,51,528 seats in summer, 2011.

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In reply to another question, Ravi said that 790.37 acres of airport land stood encroached in year 2011-12 (till November 2011) while 10.83 acres of area had been vacated during this time.

In year 2010-11, total area of encroachment on airport land was 801 acres of which authorities managed to get 36.59 acres vacated.

Responding to another query related to Airport Authority of India (AAI), the minister said that it had been decided that the Air Navigation Services (ANS) wing would be hived off from the AAI.

PTI