India's struggling Kingfisher Airlines slipped in market share to the third position in October, from second in September, ceding ground to budget airline IndiGo, government data showed. Kingfisher is unlikely to recover lost ground in coming months because the loss-making carrier has cancelled scores of flights in November, catching both customers and government authorities by surprise and spooking investors.
Chairman Vijay Mallya said earlier this week Kingfisher cancelled the flights to stop flying on heavily loss-making routes. Kingfisher has also said some aircraft were grounded for fleet reconfiguration after the airline decided to leave its low-cost business. Kingfisher recorded a market share of 16.7 percent for October, a busy season for the airline industry, trailing IndiGo at 19.6 percent.
Kingfisher was almost neck-and-neck with state-run Air India, which had a share of 16.6 percent, while Jet Airways remained the dominant carrier with a market share of 24.8 percent, which included its subsidiary JetLite. Close on Kingfisher's heels was budget airline SpiceJet with a share of 16.1 percent.
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