LTC policies lead to surge in Air India's passenger traffic

There has been a substantial increase in Air India's passenger traffic in May in the northern region, thanks to the government's new LTC (leave travel concession) policy for class B and class C employees and discount offered by the airline.     

"In May, daily passenger carriage average for northern region was 6,690, while it was 4,240 for April," an Air India spokesperson said.     

The airline's daily passenger carriage average from across the country also marked an increase in May, which was 24,290 against April's average of 21,900.     

Last summers, the traffic did not go up much due to high cost. But this year, Air India's LTC offer of 80 per cent discount and government's LTC air travel facilities to class B and class C group for travelling to northeast have made this possible, the spokesperson said, adding this has contributed to increased traffic in northern region.     

Domestic passenger traffic had marginally picked up in April. For the first three months this year, the passenger traffic dipped by about 12 per cent.     

The scheduled domestic carriers carried 33.15 lakh passengers in April of which Air India (domestic) contributed 17.5 per cent by carrying 5.83 lakh passengers, according to the latest DGCA report.