India’s domestic air passenger traffic went up 27 percent to 114.07 Lakh passengers in October, according to data released by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation. The number is nearly 10 percent up from the domestic air traffic numbers in September which stood at 105.55 lakh passengers.
According to the civil aviation regulator, domestic airlines carried 988.31 lakh passengers during January-October 2022, up from 620.96 lakh during the corresponding period last year.
However, air traffic was still less than what it was prior to COVID-19. In October 2019, 123.16 lakh passengers were transported by domestic airlines.
Individual market shares of airlines
With 64.71 lakh passengers carried in October, IndiGo, the largest airline in India, saw a decline in market share of 100 basis points from September to 56.7 percent.
Vistara Airlines stands in second place with a market share of 9.2 percent as it carried 10.49 lakh passengers over the period. Market share for the airline has decreased for a second consecutive month from 9.7 percent in August.
Air India's market share for the month decreased from 9.2 percent in September to 9.1 percent in October. The airline carried 10.38 lakh passengers in October. The airline became the fourth-largest domestic carrier in terms of market share in October surpassing GoFirst and SpiceJet.
GoFirst's market share in October fell to 7.0 percent from 7.9 percent in September and 8.6 percent in August. It carried 8.02 lakh passengers in October. GoFirst fell to the fifth slot in terms of market share in October.
SpiceJet remained at number five in terms of market share in October. The airline, which has been making news for snags during flights, saw its share remain at 7.3 percent in October. It flew 8.29 lakh passengers in October.
In October, SpiceJet, IndiGo, Vistara, Go First, Air India, and AirAsia India had passenger load factor or occupancy rates) of 88.1 percent, 82.1 percent, 85.5 percent, 86.7 percent, 82.7 percent, and 84.2 percent, respectively.
Akasa Air, India's newest carrier also saw a slight fall in its passenger load factor, falling to 77.5 percent in October, its third month of operations, from 81.2 percent in September.
The airline carried 1.61 lakh passengers in October, garnering a market share of 1.4 percent.
According to data, 396 passenger complaints were made in October. Around 0.35 complaints were made for every 10,000 travelers. At four major airports—Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Mumbai—Air India had the best on-time performance in October with a 90.8 percent rate. The second and third best were offered by Vistara and AirAsia, and then IndiGo.
