Kingfisher regains number two spot

Vijay Mallya-controlled Kingfisher Airlines has left behind IndiGo to become the second largest carrier in the country in January, data released by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation showed. The market also witnessed an increase of 20.7 per cent in passenger traffic during this period.

Kingfisher ended the month with a market share of 19.5 per cent followed by IndiGo at 19.2 per cent. Both the airlines carried 18.6 per cent of the total passengers in December.

While the two airlines are fighting for the second spot, the government carrier, Air India, lost most of its passengers to private airways. In January, it carried 15.8 per cent of the total domestic passengers. This is a steep fall from 17.1 per cent in December.

The national carrier is followed by SpiceJet at 14.3 per cent. Wadia-group promoted GoAir, with a fleet of 10 aircraft, took the last position by carrying 6.4 per cent of the total passenger in January.

Jet Airways continued to be the market leader with a market share of 24.8 per cent — 17.3 per cent of Jet Airways and 7.5 per cent of JetLite. The problems of Air India does not end with declining market share, it also performed poorly in terms of on-time performance (OTP) and flight cancellations.

Air India’s OTP for the month was also the worst in the industry, at 67.9 per cent. The best OTP was of Jet at 88.8 per cent.

The government-owned carrier saw 2.4 per cent of its flights being cancelled during the month followed only JetLite with a cancellation rate of 3.5 per cent.