Air traffic growth in January slows, shows DGCA data
India's air passenger traffic in January grew modestly in what is a traditionally weak season, with most airlines showing declining occupancy rates.
India's air passenger traffic in January grew modestly in what is a traditionally weak season, with most airlines showing declining occupancy rates.
The performance of the aviation sector in January was worse off than a year ago on vital parameters. Passenger traffic grew 2.2 percent year on year to 1.28 crore passengers in January. In January 2019, India’s passenger traffic rose 9.1 percent from the previous year to 1.25 crore passengers.
“The passenger load factor in the month of January 2020 has shown decreasing trend compared to previous month due to the end of tourist season,” aviation regulator DGCA said in its monthly report.
DGCA compiles traffic data by sourcing it from airlines.
Most airlines showed a decline in occupancy rates, or load factors, owing to the traditional weakness in the January-March quarter. Low-cost airline SpiceJet achieved the highest load factor of 91.5 percent in January 2020 against 92.7 percent in December 2019. The load factor of IndiGo, India's biggest airline, fell to 87.8 percent in January from 90.1 percent in December.
Full-service airline Vistara was the only major carrier that registered a rise in load factor at 83.5 percent in January from 81.1 percent in December. Loads of Air India, the government-run airline that is looking to privatise, was the lowest among major carriers at 78 percent followed by AirAsia India at 79.3 percent.
AirAsia India, a joint venture of Tata Sons and Malysia's AirAsia group, was however the most punctual airline with an on-time performance at 75.7 percent across the four metro airports. But remember AirAsia India operates far fewer planes than IndiGo or SpiceJet.
IndiGo had an on-time rate of 74 percent and Vistara 70.2 percent. Air India's punctuality rate was a dismal 47.9 percent. SpiceJet was on-time only 65.3 percent of the time.
In terms of market share, Air India’s shrunk to 11.6 percent in January from 11.9 percent in December 2019. IndiGo maintained its lead position at 47.9 percent while GoAir’s share reduced to 9.8 percent from 10.2 percent in December 2019 due to capacity shortage issues.
Vistara expanded its presence with a 6.5 percent share from 6.1 percent earlier. SpiceJet increased its share to 16.6 percent from 16.5 percent.
First Published: Feb 17, 2020 5:43 PM IST
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