National
'Air traffic will be flat till October'
By T.S. Shankar
CHENNAI, DEC. 6. The recovery curve in the air travel industry would be seen by only October next year and there are enough indications of the gradual improvement of traffic, the CEO of Jet Airways, Mr. S. Forte, said about the current downturn in the airline industry.
Mr. Forte, who was on a day-long visit to the city and who met up with both the corporate clientele and the airline staff, told The Hindu on Tuesday that the ``air traffic would be pretty flat until October next year. We will have to closely look at the present trends and if we could survive the valley now, then we are on the right track of the growth''.
Apart from Mumbai and New Delhi points, Bangalore and Chennai in the southern region are expressing greater optimism over the airline industry bouncing back to normality, Mr. Forte said. Jet Airways was well-placed as a private carrier which had flown over 27 million passengers since its inception on May 5, 1993, until the end of October this year, to meet this growth, he added.
In this context, the CEO said that as part of the airline's action plan, Bangalore and Chennai would soon be made important hubs of the domestic carrier.
``We are very much interested in the return of foreign visitors apart from the NRIs and the media overseas had to play a vital role in promoting India as a safe destination,'' the CEO said adding that there had been no slowdown in the carrier's fleet expansion plan.
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