IndiGo and SpiceJet have seen the most remarkable turns of fortune among India's domestic airlines in 2014. Market leader IndiGo further consolidated its hold and closed the year with 36.1 percent market share against 27.7 percent in January. In a sense, from accounting for close to a fourth of the domestic market, IndiGo now accounts for more than a third. The airline has been profitable for some years on the back of steadily rising passenger traffic and is already planning to get publicly listed. IndiGo is the poster boy of Indian aviation in every sense.
The turn of fortune for SpiceJet has not been quite so pleasant, though no less dramatic. At the start of 2014, SpiceJet controlled close to a fifth of the market with 18.6 percent share and managed to create quite a buzz through the year with its frequent discount schemes.
SpiceJet reached peak market share of almost 21 percent in July but closed the year with just 10.4 percent. The airline has seen a dramatic decline in passengers as a severe cash crunch and resultant troubles threatened its very existence over the last few months of the year, in fact operations were briefly grounded in December when oil companies refused to fuel its aircraft.
A revival plan for SpiceJet, lead by former promoter Ajay Singh, has been cleared last night and funds are expected to start coming in soon. The airline may see some improvement in operations going forward but a return to its former position will take time. It wouldn't be too much of a stretch to argue that the loss of passengers by other airlines helped IndiGo. This is the case when one looks at the SpiceJet trajectory - its operations began floundering in November and simultaneously, IndiGo's market share began climbing.
20/02/15 Sindhu Bhattacharya/First Post
The turn of fortune for SpiceJet has not been quite so pleasant, though no less dramatic. At the start of 2014, SpiceJet controlled close to a fifth of the market with 18.6 percent share and managed to create quite a buzz through the year with its frequent discount schemes.
SpiceJet reached peak market share of almost 21 percent in July but closed the year with just 10.4 percent. The airline has seen a dramatic decline in passengers as a severe cash crunch and resultant troubles threatened its very existence over the last few months of the year, in fact operations were briefly grounded in December when oil companies refused to fuel its aircraft.
A revival plan for SpiceJet, lead by former promoter Ajay Singh, has been cleared last night and funds are expected to start coming in soon. The airline may see some improvement in operations going forward but a return to its former position will take time. It wouldn't be too much of a stretch to argue that the loss of passengers by other airlines helped IndiGo. This is the case when one looks at the SpiceJet trajectory - its operations began floundering in November and simultaneously, IndiGo's market share began climbing.
20/02/15 Sindhu Bhattacharya/First Post
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