India's Domestic Air Traffic Posts 18% Growth In October

Tuesday, 18th November 2014 at 01:50am

Most of the major players in the domestic travel market posted a promising trend in air traffic in October this year, a growth of 18% over the same period last year.

Though IndiGo retains its lead in the domestic market share, it is Air India who made a strong showing when its load factor overshadowed IndiGo's.

Based on the data furnished from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), domestic airlines ferried 6 million passengers during the month of October this year. The total number showed an 18% improvement over the same period last year which stood at 5 million passengers.

The average growth during the 9-month period, from January to October this year, however, showed a more modest growth of only 8.61%. All in all, the total number of air passengers carried by domestic airlines during the January-October period reached 55 million passengers as compared to 50 million during the same period in 2013.

IndiGo continues its strong lead over its rivals, carrying 1.9 million passengers during the month of October with a load factor of 76%. Though state-owned carrier, Air India, carried 1.2 million passengers during the period, it bested IndiGo in the load factor department with a decent 84%. Its budget affiliate, Air India Express, boasted a load factor of 80%.

A load factor is defined as a measure of the utilization of the aircraft's carrying capacity.

IndiGo was beset by flight cancellations during the month posting the highest rate among local players, at 2.35%. Air India, meanwhile, had a rate of only 1.45%.

SpiceJet came in third with the most number of passengers carried during the period, a little over 1 million. Jet Airways followed at fourth place carrying close to a million passengers. GoAir came in fifth with half a million passengers.

JetLite, on the other hand, carried over 200,000 passengers while the two newcomers, Air Costa and AirAsia India, had flown 67,000 and 66,000 passengers respectively during the same period.

The domestic airlines paid a combined Rs.8.9 million to more than 1,800 customers whose flights were either canceled or delayed. They further spent another Rs.5.9 million for facilities and other form of compensations to more than 9,700 customers affected by flight cancellations.

By: Pete Lee.