Domestic aviation traffic in March saw the fastest growth in recent years at 28.03% with domestic airlines flying a total of 11.5 million passengers last month as compared with 9.04 million a year earlier, according to DGCA's monthly data.
The country has seen double-digit growth since 2014 and the spurt in traffic in March is the fastest since July 2015 when the domestic aviation sector recorded 29.31% growth.
‘Growth in lean period’
“Growth of 28.03% in March shows a continuing positive momentum in the domestic air market, even in a traditionally lean travel period,” said Sharat Dhall, COO (B2C), Yatra.com.
“The Y-o-Y growth of 23.87% since January puts India amongst the fastest growing air passenger markets in the world. We believe that this record growth will continue as we approach the summer holiday season, which is one of the strongest periods for travel in the year,” he added.
Market-leader IndiGo cornered 39.5% of total passengers flown by all domestic carriers despite 11 of its planes being grounded by the DGCA due to engine problems with its Pratt and Whitney-powered A320Neo planes. Jet Airways enjoyed 15% of the market share, followed by Air India at 13.4%.
Among the most punctual airlines was also IndiGo with 84.1% of its flights landing and taking off on time. SpiceJet followed with 83.9% of its flights operating on time and Vistara was third with 83% of its flights being punctual.
SpiceJet once again witnessed maximum seat occupancy of 95%. It was followed by IndiGo (89%) and Vistara (88.2%).
However, despite IndiGo recording the best on-time performance, it also had the maximum number of passengers, 58,656, affected due to delays beyond two hours. Air India and SpiceJet had 18,853 and 17,244 passengers affected due to delays.
Airlines altogether spent ₹16.5 million to compensate passengers affected by delays, cancellations and for denying boarding.
