The number of passengers flying domestic airlines dropped by 4.5 per cent to 109.95 lakh in April as compared to 115.13 lakh in the same month of the previous year, according to data released by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).
The key reason was grounding of Jet Airways on April 17, which cut the total seat capacity and shrank the market.
Taken together in the first four months of calendar 2019, however, the number of flyers was up 2.5 per cent at 464.47 lakh compared to 453.03 lakh in January to April of 2018.
Of these, 404.23 lakh passengers were flown by private carriers while the government-owned Air India flew 60.25 lakh travellers.
SpiceJet had the highest passenger load factor in April at 93.7 per cent followed by GoAir at 90.8 per cent and IndiGo at 87.8 per cent. Air India's PLF was 81.2 per cent, according to DGCA figures.
GoAir had the best on-time performance followed by Air Asia, Vistara, IndiGo, and Air India.
IndiGo had a market share of 45.6 per cent from January to April while SpiceJet had 13.4 per cent, GoAir at 9.6 per cent and Air India at 13 per cent.