Domestic airlines in India experienced a significant growth in passenger numbers during the period of January to April 2023. According to the latest data released by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), the total number of passengers carried by domestic airlines reached 503.93 lakhs, reflecting a substantial increase from the 352.70 lakhs recorded during the same period last year.
The data revealed an annual growth rate of 42.88 percent, highlighting the strong recovery and increasing demand for air travel in the country. Furthermore, the month of April witnessed 22.20 percent growth compared to the previous month. The number of passengers carried in April 2023 reached 128.88 lakhs from 105.47 lakhs in 2022.
As per the data, Indigo airline, maintained its dominant position in the market with a sizeable market share of 57.5 percent in April 2023. Vistara secured the second-largest market share at 8.7 percent, closely followed by Air India at 8.6 percent and Air Asia at 7.6 percent. GoFirst accounted for 6.4 percent of the market share, while SpiceJet held 5.8 percent.
Notably, Tata Group, with its various airline ventures, emerged as a significant player, accumulating a cumulative market share of 24.9 percent.
Additionally, as per the data, the overall cancellation rate of scheduled domestic airlines for the month of April 2023 has been 0.47 percent.
Alliance Air had the maximum share of 7.55 percent followed by Fly Big at 3 percent. While IndiGo, Go First had 0.17 and 0.08 percent cancellation rate respectively. Spice Jet saw a cancellation share of 0.56 percent. Vistara and Air India had 0.04 percent and 0.01 percent share in flight cancellations.
The data revealed that a significant share of flight cancellations, accounting for 43.5 percent, was due to operational issues. Following closely behind were technical issues, contributing to 36.1 percent of the cancellations. Weather-related factors accounted for 13.5 percent of the flight cancellations, while commercial reasons were responsible for 2.6 percent. Miscellaneous factors rounded out the list at 4.3 percent.
