Weddings and Sporting Events Fuel Growth in Aviation
04.01.2024 - 14:51
/ skift.com
CMS Info Systems, a company providing logistics and technology solutions, has released consumption trends for the first half of the 2024 fiscal year (October 2023 to March 2024). The aviation and hospitality sectors are showing annual growth of 29.7% and 12.8%, respectively, for the period. The CMS report pointed to increased demand for travel, especially during events like the Cricket World Cup.
Cricket World Cup: India hosted the Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023 after 12 years, from October 5 to November 19, 2023, and the travel industry benefitted from it. As reported by Skift, accommodation searches in host cities for match days have, on average, grown by 237% over the past year. The always much-awaited India vs. Pakistan match and the World Cup Finals were held in Ahmedabad. As a result, the city emerged as the frontrunner, with a 1,702% surge in stay searches.
The UK, U.S., Singapore, Australia, and Malaysia had topped the charts for inbound searches during the period. According to inbound flight search data from OTA Insight from October to November 2023, flight searches had grown significantly relative to 2022 in the months leading up to the World Cup.
Wedding season: Marriages were another avenue where the aviation and hospitality industry benefited. Indians consider weddings a grand event. According to the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT), 3.5 million weddings were held between November 23 and December 15. This brought an estimated business of INR 4.25 trillion ($51 billion) this wedding season.
Workforce expansion: TeamLease Services, a staffing conglomerate in India, recently unveiled its latest “TeamLease Employment Outlook Report” for the second half of the fiscal year 2024. The report also focuses on trends within the travel and hospitality sector. The trends stated how the travel and hospitality sector shows robust growth in crucial hiring categories. There was a 68% incremental workforce expansion in the second half of the fiscal year.
Airline Akasa Air recently welcomed two Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft to its growing fleet. With this, the airline exited the calendar year 2023 with a fleet size of 22 aircraft, including 21 Boeing 737 MAX 8 and one Boeing 737 MAX 8 200.
More Aircraft In Kitty? Meanwhile, according to a Mint report, Akasa Air is finalizing a deal for approximately 150 Boeing 737 MAX narrowbody planes. The same report stated that negotiations are underway among company executives to secure a favorable agreement.
The official declaration of the aircraft purchase is expected to occur at Wings India, the country’s largest civil aviation event scheduled for January 18-21. The new order for around 150 planes is speculated to include additional options for future purchases,