Domestic air traffic highest in Oct-Dec; IndiGo pips AI

Domestic air traffic continued on its robust growth path this winter recording the highest number of passengers carried between October and December last year, as leading no-frill carrier IndiGo again pipped Air India for the third place in terms of travellers flown.

The fourth quarter of 2010 registered 147.05 lakh passengers, up from 134.78 lakh in April-June, 2010, 119.84 lakh in July-September and 118.54 lakh in January-March, official figures released today showed.

While Jet Airways and its wholly-owned subsidiary JetLite together carried 38.13 lakh passengers, it was followed by Kingfisher and Kingfisher Red combine which carried 27.81 lakh.

IndiGo flew 25.89 lakh passengers taking the third position, while Air India (Domestic) carried 25.42 lakh travellers. These airlines were followed by SpiceJet with 20.01 and GoAir with 9.79 lakh, the figures showed.

In December alone, these airlines together flew 52.13 lakh passengers, with Jet-JetLite leading the way and Kingfisher and IndiGo following it.

In the October-December period, Jet-JetLite jointly held 26 per cent of the entire domestic market share. The Jet group was followed by Kingfisher with 18.9 per cent, IndiGo with 17.6 per cent, Air India 17.1, SpiceJet 13.6 and GoAir 6.7, the figures showed.

The highest seat factor of 93.3 per cent was bagged by IndiGo, followed by other no-frill carriers SpiceJet with 87.8, GoAir with 87 per cent and JetLite with 84.8. Seat factor is the average percentage of seats filled on each flight.

Air India recorded the lowest seat factor at 78.8 per cent, while Jet Airways recorded 80.1 and Kingfisher 85.9.