National carrier Air India flew more than 50,000 passengers in a single day on last Friday on its national and international routes, an airline official revealed.

The official said, "We carried a record 50,765 passengers across our network on December 21. This was the highest number of passengers ferried by the carrier on a single day as compared to the last year."

The national carrier flew a total of 35,246 passengers on its domestic network, and another 15,519 passengers on its international flights.

The carrier's earnings also jumped to a record high of Rs 48 crore on last Friday, December 21. The figure included Rs 25 crore from the the carrier's overseas operations.

Combined seat factor reached 81 per cent on that day. The national carrier achieved seat factors of 87.7 per cent and 77.9 per cent on domestic and international routes, respectively.

Air India operates a total of 319 flights on daily basis both on its domestic and international networks.

The national carrier has seen considerable improvement in its domestic market share in the last seven months. During the April to November period, Air India enjoyed an increase of 4.5 per cent in its market share, and pushed the private carrier Jet Airways to the third slot with a market share of 20.7 per cent.