Air passenger traffic jumps 24% in February: DGCA

Marking a growth of over 24% in passengers number, domestic airlines flew 74.76 lakh people in February with majority of the carriers recording over 80% seat occupancy.

In February last year, the carriers had ferried 60.16 lakh passengers.

Latest data compiled by aviation regulator Director General Of Civil Aviation (DGCA) showed that no-frills carrier IndiGo's market share stood at 36.8% in February while that of Jet Airways was 18.4%.

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Overall, the carriers ferried 74.76 lakh passengers, an increase of 24.27% compared to the year-ago period, a senior DGCA official said.

The load factor – an indicator of seat occupancy – of majority of the carriers, including IndiGo and SpiceJet, was more than 80%, the official noted.

Last month, the market share of Air India stood at 15.4%, followed by SpiceJet (13.1%), GoAir (8%), JetLite (2.8%), AirAsia (2.2%), Vistara (2%) and Air Costa (0.8%). The market share of Air Pegasus and Trujet was at 0.3% each, according to the DGCA.

In January, local carriers had flown 76.55 lakh people.

According to the official, a total of 151.31 lakh passengers were ferried by airlines during January-February.

This represents an increase of over 23% compared with 122.61 lakh passengers seen a year ago.