Indian Airlines' share of the market fell from 48.9 per cent in 2001 to 42.5 per cent in 2002, losing the national carrier its position as market leader. For the same period, Jet Airways' market share increased from 46.1 per cent to 48.7 per cent and Air Sahara's nearly doubled to 8.6 per cent, according to latest figures available with official sources.

Air Sahara flew 1.11 million passengers in 2002, 84.3 per cent more than the 605,000 it carried in 2001. Indian Airlines, on the other hand, ferried 5.48 million passengers in 2002, a 9.7 per cent drop from 6.06 million in 2001. Jet Airways' passenger carriage rose 9.8 per cent to 6.28 million in 2002.

Indian Airlines subsidiary Alliance Air's passenger traffic dropped by 12 per cent in 2002. The airline, which had flown 1.5 million passengers in 2001, saw the number dropping to 1.4 million the next year.

The year 2002 saw a meagre 3.9 per cent increase in scheduled domestic passenger traffic. Total domestic passenger traffic in 2002 was 12.8 million passengers as compared to 12.3 million in 2001.

The compounded annual decline for Indian Airlines from 1999 to 2002 was 4.3 per cent. Air Sahara achieved a compounded growth rate of 21 per cent in the same period, while Jet Airways' growth rate was 7.8 per cent.

The market share of the state-owned domestic airline has been falling. From 55.8 per cent in 1999, it dropped to 48.6 per cent in 2000. This rose slightly to 48.9 per cent in 2001, to dip again to 42.5 per cent in 2002.

The market shares of Jet and Sahara have, meanwhile, increased since 1999.