Airlines stocks trade weak; InterGlobe Aviation down 4%

InterGlobe Aviation, SpiceJet and Jet Airways were trading lower in the range of 1% to 4% on the BSE.

Shares of all three listed airlines companies InterGlobe Aviation, SpiceJet and Jet Airways were trading lower by up to 4% on the BSE after the air passenger traffic growth slows in the month of May.

Domestic air passenger traffic grew 16.53% to 11.86 million in May this year over the same period a year ago, according to data released by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Tuesday. The growth rate was lowest since September 2017, when airlines in India carried 9.58 million passengers, up 16.34% from last September.

Twelve domestic airlines together flew 11.85 million passengers as compared to 10.17 million passengers in May 2017, DGCA released figures said.

The passenger load factor in the month of May 2018 has shown increasing trend compared to previous month primarily due to onset of tourist season, it added.

The data disclosed that low-cost carrier SpiceJet had the highest passenger load factor (PLF) -- a measure of capacity utilisation of the airline -- at 94.8% during May.

Among the individual stocks, InterGlobe Aviation, which runs India’s largest private carrier IndiGo, has dipped 4.4% to Rs 1,174 on the BSE.  Jet Airways (India) was down 2.3% at Rs 379 and SpiceJet trading 1% lower at Rs 110 on the BSE. On comparison, the S&P BSE Sensex was up 0.28% or 99 points at 35,386 at 10:41 am.

In past three months, Jet Airways (down 43%), SpiceJet (19%) and IndiGo (5%) have underperformed the market, as compared to 7% rise in the benchmark index.