Domestic air traffic up 18% in October

Airlines fly 7 mn passengers, IndiGo leads with 36.8% maket share followed by Jet Airways-JetLite combine (21.2%)

Domestic air traffic rose 18.8 per cent  year-on-year, as airlines flew seven million passengers in October. Last October airlines flew 5.9 million passengers. IndiGo led the domestic airline space with a market share of 36.8 per cent followed by Jet Airways-JetLite combine (21.2 per cent) and Air India (15.5 per cent). SpiceJet reported the highest occupancy with a load factor of 92 per cent.

Infact the airline has been recording 90-plus percent occupancy since May. Vistara had lowest occupancy amongst peers with load factor of 67  per cent but had the highest on time performance of 93 per cent and zero cancellations.

“Air traffic has been growing 20 per cent for the last few months driven by 15-20 per cent decline in fares. The growth is robust.  Passenger growth in November will be better considering Diwali was celebrated in October last year,” said Sharat Dhall, President of Yatra.com.

Increase in discretionary travel and rise in foreign tourist arrivals too has contributed to passenger growth in India.

Data from International Air Transport Association shows that demand growth in India was the highest among countries including Australia, Brazil, China, Japan, Russia and the US. Between January-September passenger demand in India grew 19.3% over the corresponding period of last year.