Vistara doubles market share, Jet sees steep fall

Vistara has doubled its market share to 2.8 per cent in June over the corresponding month last year. Jet Airways saw the sharpest fall among all airlines during this period.

Domestic air traffic rose 20.81 per cent in June on the back of low fares and peak season demand.

Carriers flew 7.9 million passengers against 6.6 million passengers in June 2015. According to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) data, domestic airlines flew 47.5 million passengers between January and June this year, registering a year-on-year (y-o-y) growth of 22.52 per cent.

Vistara's market share grew from 1.3 per cent in June 2015 to 2.8 per cent as it inducted aircraft and expanded its network.

The market share of Jet Airways and JetLite (combined) slipped two percentage points to 19.1 per cent as it did not add aircraft and most of its capacity enhancement was through better aircraft utilisation.

"We acquired nine aircraft and introduced 12 destinations in 2015. In 2016, we have added two aircraft and 6 destinations. We would be adding two more aircraft by October and introduce a couple of new destinations by the end of this year," said a Vistara spokesperson.

Changes in market share of other airlines have been minor. Market share of Air India, AirAsia India and SpiceJet increased on a year-on-year basis while that of GoAir and IndiGo declined. IndiGo had a market share of 38.4 per cent in June 2015 which fell to 37.9 per cent. SpiceJet's share rose from 12.1 per cent to 12.7 per cent.

"New airlines like AirAsia India and Vistara have added capacity. Even the regional airlines have a market share of 1.5 per cent in June. IndiGo's load factor in June fell to 77.9 per cent from 87.2 per cent in the previous month. Such a steep fall is surprising and partly explains the decline in its market share," said aviation consultant Anurag Jain.

However, IndiGo's passenger traffic in absolute terms grew to three million in June, a rise of 19 per cent y-o-y, while Air India's saw a 22.5 per cent growth to 1.2 million. Jet Airways saw a modest increase of 8.9 per cent to 1.5 million. Among the new airlines, AirAsia's passenger traffic grew 37 per cent to 170,000 while that of Vistara grew 2.7 times to 220,000.

"It is great to see the domestic air passenger numbers continuing to grow at 20 per cent even at the end of a peak season," said Sharat Dhall, president of Yatra.com. "We expect this to continue, particularly if air fares remain at current levels. With the government looking at regional connectivity initiatives, we are positive the Indian air market is likely to grow aggressively in the near to medium term."