Mumbai: The passenger traffic carried by scheduled domestic airlines in the past five years has grown at an increasing rate annually from 5.4 per cent in 1999-2000 to 11.7 in 2003-04, according to official figures.

The only year it went down was 2001-02 after the September 11 terror strikes when it registered a negative rate of 6.3 per cent.

While the rate was 5.4 per cent in 1999-00, it rose to 8.4 in 2000-01. After the slide in 2001-02, the very next year it recorded an annual growth rate of 9.1 per cent followed by 11.7 per cent in 2003-04.

According to the figures on market share of various scheduled airlines in the same year, Jet Airways topped the list with 46.7 per cent in 2003-04, followed by Indian Airlines and its subsidiary Alliance Air together at 39.3 per cent, Air Sahara at 13 and Air Deccan one per cent.

While Jet Airways carried about 6.9 million passengers, IA and Alliance Air carried 5.8 million, Air Sahara 1.924 million and Air Deccan 149,000, the figures showed.

The total passengers carried by all scheduled carriers in 2003-04 were 147.79 lakh (14.779 million), while it was 132.3 lakh (13.23 million) in 2002-03 and 121.3 lakh (12.13 million) in 2001-02.