Newstrack

North-East region flies high on air travel

Atreyee Dev Roy - New Delhi

The north-east region is leading the air traffic boom in India. The region registered a 52 per cent growth in April this year over the corresponding month previous year, much ahead of the prosperous western and northern regions, where traffic grew at 19.3 per cent and 25.5 per cent respectively, clearly indicating that major growth in the air travel is coming from non-metro cities.

Next to the north-east maximum growth was seen in the eastern region with 40.2 per cent growth followed by southern India with 34 per cent growth. Of the four cities that registered more than 100 per cent growth three of them belongs to the East and north-east region with Bhubaneshwar, Raipur and Imphal registering growth rates of 162 per cent, 151 per cent and 111.3 per cent respectively, according to the government data.

The north-east region recorded the highest growth in total aircraft movements (39.2 per cent) followed by southern region (37.9 per cent) during the reporting month April 2007.

The region has caught the interest of even the private airlines after the north-East Council expressed interest in starting a separate airline for the north-eastern region along with a private sector carrier, and Dr Vijay Mallya's Kingfisher Airlines is taking a interest in bidding for it, industry sources said.

The total passenger traffic grew at 27.7 per cent in April 2007 compared with the same month last year. However, freight traffic only showed a modest growth of 9.2 per cent in the comparable period.