Domestic passenger traffic grows 51.7% on YoY basis; IndiGo gains mkt share

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Wednesday released data that showed the passengers carried by domestic airlines in India reported a 51.7 per cent year-on-year (YoY) increase in January-March 2023 period, according to a statement from the Ministry of Civil Aviation.

The domestic airlines carried a total of 37.5 million passengers between January-March 2023 as compared to 24.7 million passengers during the corresponding period in the last year. The monthly growth stood at 21.41 per cent, with 12.89 million In March 2023 as against 10.61 million passengers in the corresponding month of the previous year. 

IndiGo, which is India's largest carrier in terms of its market share, commanded its position at 56.8 per cent in March 2023, with the total number of passengers standing at 7.31 million. IndiGo was followed by Vistara at 8.9 per cent with 1.14 million passengers and Air India at 8.8 per cent with 1.13 million passengers.

Rakesh Jhunjhunwala's Akasa Air gained its market share by 30 basis points, shows data. The management said that it will have 20 aircraft by May and 26-27 aircraft by March 2024. It further said that from there 12-16 aircraft every year for the next 3 years will be added and towards the latter part of 2023, the company will announce new aircraft orders and its plans to go international.

While the market share grew for some of these airlines, it slipped both for SpiceJet and Go First by 70-100 basis points. However, the passenger load factor (PLF) in March was highest for SpiceJet at 92.3 per cent, followed by Vistara at 91.6 per cent and Go First at 90.2 per cent.

There has also been a significant decline in the number of passenger-related complaints and an increase in the resolution of those complaints. According to the DGCA data, flight problems – 60 per cent, baggage – 16.3 per cent, and refunds – 11.8 per cent were major reasons for complaint in 2019 whereas for March 2023 major reasons included flight problems – 38.6 per cent, baggage – 22.2 per cent, refund – 11.5 per cent, others – 11.5 per cent.