Air India pips SpiceJet in November passenger share

IndiGo maintains lead, including in punctuality, where as Air India still in last place; country's passenger traffic slightly up compared to year before

Domestic air passenger traffic grew moderately in November, with the country’s six scheduled airlines together carrying 5.14 million passengers. This is an increase of around two per cent over the 5.02 million who’d availed of air travel services in the same period last year.

Data with the Directorate General of Civil Aviation show overall capacity in the domestic market went up 10.5 per cent last month but demand increased at a much slower 2.5 per cent.

Interestingly, state-owned Air India (AI) overtook SpiceJet to become the second largest passenger airline in the domestic market, with 19.3 per cent of the month’s traffic. SpiceJet’s share was 19 per cent.

Budget carrier IndiGo continued to lead in the domestic market. Nearly one of every three travellers preferring to fly with it. IndiGo’s market share declined, however, to 28.6 per cent during the month as compared to 30.2 per cent recorded in October. The prime gainer was Jet Airways, which, with low-cost arm JetLite, improved its share to 24.1 per cent (Jet’s 18.5 per cent and JetLite’s 5.6 per cent) of the domestic air travel market.

AI also recorded the highest passenger load factor (PLF) during the month, at 75.1 per cent. The carrier was followed by IndiGo, whose PLF was 74.6 per cent. PLF is a measure of how much of an airline's passenger carrying capacity or number of seats is being used.

GoAir followed with a PLF of 73.2 per cent. For Jet Airways and JetLite, it was 71.75 per cent. SpiceJet was last, with 70.7 per cent.

IndiGo maintained its reputation for record on-time performance — 86.5 per cent of its flights were on time from the country’s six biggest airports. Jet Airways and JetLite recorded an OTP of 85.9 per cent. AI’s record here was the worst, at 71.7 per cent.

Total passengers carried by domestic airlines between January and November this year was 55.84 million, as compared to 53.43 million in the same period last year, a growth of 4.5 per cent.