7.7 mn domestic passengers travelled in Feb; 20% more than Jan: DGCA

Around 76.96 lakh domestic passengers travelled by air in February, approximately 20 per cent more than the 64.08 lakh who flew in January, Indian aviation regulator DGCA said on Monday.

The February figure is a sign that the domestic aviation market is recovering after the 43 percent dip that was observed in January due to Omicron variant of coronavirus.

In December last year, 1.12 crore domestic passengers had travelled by air.

The passenger load factors -- which means occupancy rates -- increased for all Indian carriers in February as compared to January, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) stated in its monthly statement.

The load factors of SpiceJet, IndiGo, Vistara, Go First, Air India and AirAsia India were 89.1 percent, 85.2 percent, 87.1 percent, 87 percent, 84.1 percent and 83.2 percent, respectively, in February 2022, it mentioned.

However, in January 2022, the occupancy rates of these carriers had been 73.4 percent, 66.6 percent, 61.6 percent, 66.7 percent, 60.6 percent and 60.5 percent, respectively, it added.

In the last two years, the aviation sector has been significantly impacted due to the travel restrictions imposed in India and other countries in view of the Covid pandemic.

IndiGo -- India's largest carrier -- carried 39.51 lakh passengers in February, a 51.3 per cent share of the domestic market, the DGCA said.

SpiceJet flew 8.2 lakh passengers and Air India flew 8.55 lakh passengers in February, according to the data shared by the DGCA.

Vistara, Go First, AirAsia India and Alliance Air carried 7.49 lakh, 7.34 lakh, 4.46 lakh and 1.12 lakh passengers, respectively, in February, the data showed.

The DGCA data mentioned that in February, IndiGo had the best on-time performance of 95.4 per cent at four metro airports - Bengaluru, Delhi, Hyderabad and Mumbai.

Go First and Vistara were at the second and third positions at these four airports in February with 94.1 per cent and 90.9 per cent on-time performance respectively, the DGCA said.