Air Passenger Traffic Up 15%, SpiceJet Tops Load Factor

New Delhi: India's domestic air passenger traffic rose 14.91 per cent last month to 90.45 lakh, official data showed on Thursday. "Passengers carried by domestic airlines during January-March 2017 were 272.79 lakh as against 230.03 lakh during the corresponding period of previous year thereby registering a growth of 18.59 per cent," aviation regulator DGCA (Directorate General of Civil Aviation) said in its statistical analysis. According to the previous data furnished by DGCA, domestic air passenger traffic had increased 15.77 per cent in February to 86.55 lakh from 74.76 lakh during the corresponding month last year.

The data showed that low-cost carrier (LCC) SpiceJet had the highest passenger load factor (PLF) during the month under review at 91.4 per cent.

In terms of PLF, SpiceJet was followed by budget passenger carriers AirAsia India, (87.8 per cent) and GoAir (84.8 per cent).

Also, the data showed that IndiGo led the industry with 88 per cent punctuality rate at four major airports of Bangalore, New Delhi, Hyderabad and Mumbai.

It was followed by SpiceJet (85.7 per cent), Vistara (85.1 per cent), GoAir (81.8 per cent), Jet Airways and JetLite (80.7 per cent), and Air India (79.7 per cent) on schedule.

In contrast, the overall cancellation rate of scheduled domestic airlines for March 2017 stood at 0.41 per cent.

Besides, the data disclosed that a total of 680 passenger related complaints was received last month.

"The number of complaints per 10,000 passengers carried for the month of March 2017 has been around 0.75," the aviation regulator said.

The data revealed that IndiGo led the industry with the highest market share of 39.9 per cent, followed by Jet Airways (15.4 per cent), SpiceJet (13.2 per cent), Air India (13 per cent), and GoAir (8.9 per cent).

Full service passenger carrier Vistara reported a market share of 3.2 per cent, followed by AirAsia India (3.1 per cent), JetLite (2.5 per cent), Trujet (0.5 per cent) and Air Carnival (0.1 per cent).

"According to DGCA's recent Jan - Mar, 2017 report, domestic air passenger traffic is on the rise... This is primarily because of the continuous capacity expansion by the airlines on popular routes, addition of new sectors and slightly lower fares," said Sharat Dhall, chief operating officer (B2C), Yatra.com.

"With most airlines increasing their number of flights for the summer schedule and the expected roll out of the government's Udan scheme, we are sure to see a further growth in the coming months."