Passengers queue up for security checks at Mumbai airport. (File picture)

New Delhi, Sept. 1: Never mind F-16s and handcuffs, Indians seem determined to keep flying despite terror threats and stifling security restrictions.

Most international flights are chock-a-block with passengers and it is “business as usual” for many in the travel trade.

“All flights are booked to full capacity. In fact, we had to refuse the CEO of a BSE 30 company who wanted to fly to Paris on September 2,” said Debashish Chatterjee, director of CTI Travels.

“Students are going abroad to study, couples are migrating, businessmen are booking round trips — nothing has changed,” Chatterjee added.

Officials at India’s flagship carrier, Air-India, said 80 to 90 per cent of seats on its flights out are booked. “The traffic is especially heavy to the US... all flights to the US are full,” said S. Venkat, general manager of Air-India.

The biggest operator out of India to the UK, British Airways, too, reported full capacity on most flights.

The company said its mid-year numbers show robust demand. Such is the surge that the industry is expecting the number of Indians travelling abroad to grow by 25 per cent to touch 9 million this year.

The number of Indians flying out went up by 21 per cent in 2005, compared to 2004. Some 7.5 million Indians travelled abroad last year, compared to 6.2 million in 2004.

The trend after August 10, when a plot to bomb transatlantic flights was busted and air travel became a security nightmare, suggests that necessity has got the better of misgivings about racial profiling and harsh treatment.

Recently, as many as 12 Indians — all from the minority community — were detained in Amsterdam after a high-voltage drama that saw F-16s scrambling to escort back the Mumbai-bound flight to Dutch territory.

The subsequent release of the 12 and their revelations have led some to level charges of racial profiling, though some of the passengers conceded that “animated conversation” and “exchange of mobile phones” could have aroused the suspicion of the crew.

Industry observers said many of the unfazed travellers are business executives, software professionals and students – segments that cannot afford to put off travel.

But leisure travellers, too, are not far behind. “We have seen a 10 per cent growth in our free and independent travellers, or non-group bookings, over the past six months and our projections indicate that a strong demand for travel will continue,” Chatterjee said.

“Security checks at airports, including special checks for Indian travellers abroad, are seen as normal by most passengers under the current circumstances. No one is complaining or cancelling travel plans,” a spokesperson for British Airways added.

The industry is confident that stepped-up security measures at airports, reported racial profiling and concerns over possible terror attacks are unlikely to deter travellers.

Venkat, however, said some tourists are preferring Frankfurt and Paris to London.

Others, too, concede that the “fear factor” has not disappeared altogether. “Yes, the fear factor remains. But people have to get on with their lives. What we are witnessing is people taking the situation in their stride,” Chatterjee said.