NEW DELHI, Nov 9: Indian Airlines (IA) and Jet Airways rank among the top twenty global airlines in terms of passenger-load factor, says Airlines Business, a United States-based magazine.

A healthy passenger-load factor is one of the key indicators of good business in the aviation industry. The survey covered 150 airlines of the world, ranking them according to their financial performance, sales, revenues and passenger loads in the year 1996.The survey found that "a recovering Indian Airlines boosted its passenger- load factor by 3.7 per cent, despite competition from Jet Airways which entered the rankings at a 74.8 per cent load factor". Several other carriers achieved dramatic load factor improvements. These include Air France and China Airlines. KLM and Singapore Airlines (SIA) also did well.

Incidentally, Jet Airways is ranked number two in the category of `fastest- growing airlines' in the world.

Jet Airways grew by a whopping 70 per cent in terms of revenue-per-tonne kilometre (RTK). RTK calculates the per-kilometre revenue derived by an airline from passengers and cargo. "Jet Airways has established a clear lead in the independent airline sector in the country, with RTK growth of 70 per cent" the survey said. Jet's growth performance is topped only by Atlas Air, a US freight airline.

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