Airline tickets top India’s online shopping list: Visa

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Dec 11: The top purchase by India’s Internet shoppers in the first half of 2006 was air tickets, the world’s biggest credit-card company Visa International Inc said on Monday.

Airline ticket customers formed 40% of online shoppers in India in the six months to June 30, said a statement issued by Visa. This was followed by books comprising with 29% and music at 24% of the total purchases. An increase in Indian low-fare carriers such as IndiGo and GoAir; and Internet travel sites all of which sell tickets through their web pages, encouraged online sales. Economic growth and rising incomes of a 300-million-strong middle class are also helping air travel in the country, putting it in line with the rest of the world. Visa said airline tickets comprised the biggest category of Internet purchases globally.

“Consumers in India are clearly following the global trend as airline tickets continue to remain the most popular choice among consumers for online purchases,’’ said Visa in its Indian Consumer Report study, conducted by AC Nielsen. The number of online shoppers in India rose 7% to 3.49 million in the first half of 2006 from 3.27 million a year earlier, Visa said.

Access to faster Internet connections is also encouraging online sales. High-speed connections in India more than doubled to 1.92 million at the end of October from 690,000 in the year earlier, according to the Indian telecommunications regulator. India had 37 million Internet users at the end of September, according to a study by researcher IMRB for Internet and Mobil Association of India, up from 33 million at the end of March.

India was set to become the fastest-growing air travel market in the next decade, Airbus SAS, the world’s largest planemaker, said on December 7 in New Delhi. The South Asian country’s air travel market would grow at an average annual 7.7% pace until 2025 compared with China’s 7.2% and the global average of 4.8%, Airbus said after revising the forecast for new orders in India to 1,100 planes until 2025. India’s economy grew 9.1% in the six months ended September 30, the fastest semi-annual pace in 15 years, according to the finance ministry.