Domestic air traffic peaks in May

This is an increase of around 5% over 5.45 million passengers who availed air travel services during same period last year

India’s five scheduled airlines together carried 5.71 million passengers in May, the highest domestic traffic in the first five months of this calendar year. This is an increase of about five per cent over the 5.45 million passengers who flew during the same period last year. In March this year, domestic air traffic had spiked by 1.6 per cent to 5.18 million passengers, compared to 5.1 million in March 2012.

Data available with the Directorate General of Civil Aviation show though the overall capacity in the domestic market declined marginally by 0.6 per cent last month, demand went up 3.9 per cent due to the ongoing holiday season.

Budget carrier IndiGo continued to maintain a strong lead in the domestic market with nearly one out of every three travellers preferring it over others. IndiGo recorded a market share of 29.5 per cent during the month, significantly higher than Jet Airways, which along with low-cost arm JetLite accounted for 22.5 per cent of the domestic air travel market. SpiceJet and Air India registered market share of 19.8 and 19.1 per cent, respectively.

The market share of both Jet Airways and JetLite dipped to 17.1 per cent (from 20 per cent) and to 5.4 per cent (from 6.2 per cent), respectively, from the start of the current calendar year. Even though the airline managed to improved passenger load factor (PLF) to 75.1 per cent (from 69.4 per cent in April 2013) for its full service operations (Jet Airways) and to 77.2 per cent (71.8 per cent in April 2013) for the budget arm (JetLite), the PLF was below industry average of 84.6 per cent. PLF is a measure of how much of an airline's passenger carrying capacity (number of seats) is being used.

IndiGo managed to fill nine of every 10 seats on its flights, recording a PLF of 89.6 per cent last month.

GoAir followed with PLF of 85.8 per cent. Air India with PLF of 82 per cent was considerably ahead of its prime competitor Jet Airways. SpiceJet was in the fourth position with 80.9 per cent load factor.

Total passengers carried by domestic airlines between January and May this year stood at 25.99 million, compared to 25.80 million in the same period last year, a growth of 0.74 per cent.

IndiGo maintained its reputation for record on-time performance -- 95 percent of its flights were on time from the country’s six biggest airports. SpiceJet scored behind Air India in May, with only 85 per cent of its flights on time. The national carrier’s record was better with 89.2 per cent flights taking off on time.

Airlines’ body International Air Transport Association came out with its global air traffic analysis for April, saying the number of passengers flying internationally in business or first class was 3.8 per cent higher this April compared to the year-ago period. The economy class passenger numbers rose just by 0.9 per cent in the same period.