Growth in domestic air passenger traffic returned to double-digit figures for the first time this year in November, as Indian carriers altogether saw an 11% growth in passenger demand last month compared with the same month last year, as per DGCA’s monthly data.
Airlines ferried 129.47 lakh passengers last month compared with 116.45 lakh passengers in November 2018.
November also saw the largest number of passengers compared with all other months. The trend is an indicator of how the airline sector has been able to make up for the reduction in capacity after Jet Airways’ exit, by inducting new aircraft. There are now 628 aircraft among different carriers compared with 529 in April when Jet Airways shut its operations, leading to the grounding of its nearly 120 planes and the sector recording a negative growth of 4.5% for the first time in recent history.
Enough capacity
“With 628 aircraft we have sufficient capacity to shoulder this kind of growth,” a senior official of the DGCA said about the passenger data.
SpiceJet continued to lead in passenger load factor with 92.8% of its seats across flights sold, followed by GoAir (92.7%) and IndiGo (91.4%). In market share, IndiGo cornered 47.5%, followed by SpiceJet with 16.1% and Air India with 12.1%.
GoAir was the most punctual with 67.6% of its flights on time, followed by Vistara (67.4%) and Air Asia (66.7%).
As many as three lakh passengers were affected due to delays and cancellations and airlines had to pay ₹250 lakh as compensation to them. Nearly 93 lakh passengers were also denied boarding.
