India’s sick airlines have removed capacity or aircraft seats from the market faster than the speed at which their successful competitors have added them, forcing passengers to pay higher airfares this summer.
In January 2019, months before Jet Airways downed shutters, the total passenger carrying capacity of major Indian airlines on domestic routes was 1,378 crore available seat kilometres (ASKs), according to data compiled by the aviation regulator, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation. Four years later, in January 2023, this figure stood at 1,311 crore ASKs, a 4.8% decline in capacity.
The passenger carrying capacity of an airline is measured in ASKs, and not by aircraft, as there could be variations in the size of aircrafts as well as in their seating configurations.
