Vistara nearly catches up with SpiceJet in terms of market share

The market share of Indian airlines in the domestic aviation sector has seen a shift over the last one year as the competition has heated up in a scenario of less demand and more supply.

While the domestic civil aviation traffic crossed the pre-pandemic levels of around 4 lakh daily air passengers, the numbers have not been able to hold. Currently, the traffic is holding at around 70 to 75 percent of the pre-pandemic levels.

In this background, the airlines in India, whether full-service or low-cost carriers, have tried to engage as many passengers as possible in order to develop a decent revenue environment.

In terms of fleet size among Indian airlines, IndiGo leads with 283 airplanes, followed by Air India at 116 aircraft, SpiceJet at 87 aircraft, GoFIRST at 57 planes, Vistara at 56 aircraft, AirAsia India at 28 planes and Alliance Air at 19 aircraft.

Vistara, the joint venture between Singapore Airlines and Tata Group, has emerged as an outperformer in the race as its market share has risen to 9.4 percent in June as compared to 8.6 percent in May 2022 and 7.2 percent in June 2021. This is Vistara’s second-best performance as the highest market share for the airline was at 9.7 percent, which was secured in February 2022.

SpiceJet, which witnessed a spike in technical snags over the last two months, saw a drop in market share in June to 9.5 percent from 10 percent in May. On a yearly comparison, the airline had a market share of 9 percent in June 2021.

IndiGo, the largest Indian carrier, has shown an increase in its market share in June at 56.9 percent, up from 55.6 percent in May 2022 and also rising on year from 54.7 percent in June 2021.

For the other Tata airline, Air India, the ride has been rather bumpy in terms of market share. While the airline has seen a bit of an increase in market share from 7.2 percent in May to 7.5 percent in June, but the drop has been significant as compared to 10.2 percent in January 2022 and 10.6 percent as of December 2021.

The third airline under the Tata umbrella, AirAsia India, witnessed a drop in its market share to 5.6 percent in June from 6 percent in May. However, on a yearly comparison, the airline has shown improvement in market share from 3.4 percent in June 2021.

GoFIRST, the airline which is struggling to utilise its full fleet size due to delay in engine deliveries for its A320neos, also saw an impact in market share. It fell to 9.5 percent in June from 11.1 percent in May 2022. However, the share has increased from 8.3 percent in June 2021.