Domestic air traffic up 21% in February

Domestic airlines flew over six million passengers last month as against 4.9 million passengers in same month last year

Domestic air traffic grew upwards of 20 per cent for a consecutive month, fuelled by low fares. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) data show the air traffic rose 21.3 per cent in February over the same month last year.

Domestic airlines flew more than six million passengers last month against 4.9 million passengers in the same month last year. IndiGo continued its leadership, with 37.1 per cent market share, up from 36.4 per cent in January.

Jet Airways, with its subsidiary JetLite, retained the second spot, with 24.3 per cent share. Air India was third, 17.8 per cent in February, down from 18.7 per cent in January.

“Growth in air travel is not unexpected and has been driven by discounts. We have seen low pricing for several months,” said Samyukth Sridharan, the president of Cleartrip.

All the airlines reported growth in occupancy over January. Jet Airways and JetLite reported the highest occupancies, 89.5 and 89.7 per cent, respectively, in February.

Vistara, which began services in January, also reported growth in occupancy. In January, its first month of operation, the airline had an occupancy of 45.4 per cent. It rose to 58.6 per cent in February.

DGCA records show IndiGo had the highest on-time performance at 83.8 per cent and Air India had the lowest at 70.9 per cent.

In January, passenger growth was up 21.33 per cent over a year ago. Last year, traffic grew by 9.7 per cent, with airlines flying 67.3 million passengers.

In 2013, the domestic air traffic had grown 4.4 per cent over 2012. In 2013, airlines carried 61.4 million passengers, while the year 2012 had seen passenger numbers decline over 2011.