India's domestic air passenger traffic rose to 1.07 crore in February 2018 -- up 24.14 per cent -- from 86.55 lakh in the corresponding month of 2017, official data showed on Monday.
The total domestic air passenger traffic had risen to 1.14 crore in January.
Data furnished by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) revealed that passenger traffic during the January-February 2018 period grew by 21.80 per cent.
"Passengers carried by domestic airlines during January-February 2018 were 222.09 lakh as against 182.34 lakh during the corresponding period of previous year, registering a growth of 21.80 per cent," the DGCA said in its monthly domestic traffic report.
According to the data, low-cost carrier SpiceJet had the highest passenger load factor (PLF) -- a measure of capacity utilisation of the airline -- at 96.3 per cent during February.
"SpiceJet has yet again put up an exceptional operational performance by clocking the best on-time performance (78 per cent) amongst all airlines and the highest passenger load factor (96.3 per cent)," SpiceJet's CMD Ajay Singh was quoted as saying in a statement.
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"This is our highest ever load factor and comes in the traditionally lean travel month of February. For 35 months in a row our loads have been in excess of 90 per cent --- a feat unparalleled in the aviation industry."
SpiceJet was followed by IndiGo with a PLF of 91.8 per cent and Vistara at 91.2 per cent.
"The passenger load factor in the month of February 2018 has shown increasing trend compared to previous month primarily due to the ongoing tourist season," the monthly statistical analysis said.
The data noted that SpiceJet led the industry with 78 per cent punctuality rate (on-time performance) at the four major airports of Bengaluru, New Delhi, Hyderabad and Mumbai. It was followed by IndiGo (74.8), Vistara (73.8) and Air India's domestic operations (68.8).
The overall cancellation rate of scheduled domestic airlines for February 2018 stood at 0.89 per cent.
In addition, the data disclosed that a total of 642 passenger-related complaints were received last month.
"The number of complaints per 10,000 passengers carried for the month of February 2018 has been around 0.60," the monthly analysis said.
The data revealed that IndiGo led the industry with the highest market share of 39.9 per cent, followed by Jet Airways (14.6), Air India (13.2), SpiceJet (12.4), and GoAir (9.5).
AirAsia India had a market share of 4.2 per cent, followed by Vistara (3.6), JetLite (2.2) and Trujet (0.3).
--IANS
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