India's September domestic air passenger traffic up 16%

Domestic air passenger traffic rose to 95.83 lakh in September -- up 16.43 per cent -- from 82.30 lakh reported for the corresponding month of 2016, official data showed on Wednesday.

On a sequential basis, total domestic air passenger traffic had risen by 15.63 per cent to 96.90 lakh in August.

Data furnished by the civil aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) revealed that passenger traffic during the January-September period grew by almost 17 per cent.

"Passengers carried by domestic airlines during January-September 2017 were 849.94 lakh as against 726.98 lakh during the corresponding period of previous year thereby registering a growth of 16.91 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 94.2 per cent during September.

"This is the 31st month in a row that SpiceJet has flown with load factors in excess of 90 per cent -- a feat unparalleled in global aviation history," said Shilpa Bhatia, Chief Revenue and Sales Officer, SpiceJet.

SpiceJet was followed by budget passenger carriers GoAir with PLF at 88.5 per cent and IndiGo at 85.2 per cent.

"The passenger load factor in the month of September 2017 has shown declining trend compared to previous month primarily due to the end of tourist season," the monthly statistical analysis said.

The data noted that IndiGo led the industry with 89.8 per cent punctuality rate (on-time performance) at four major airports of Bengaluru, New Delhi, Hyderabad and Mumbai. It was followed by Vistara (86.8), SpiceJet (86.4) and Air India's domestic operations (78.4).

The overall cancellation rate of scheduled domestic airlines for September 2017 stood at 0.78 per cent.

In addition, the data disclosed that a total of 606 passenger-related complaints were received last month.

"The number of complaints per 10,000 passengers carried for the month of September 2017 has been around 0.63," the aviation regulator said.

The data revealed that IndiGo led the industry with the highest market share of 38.2 per cent, followed by Jet Airways (15.4), SpiceJet (13.8), Air India (13.5), and GoAir (8.4).

AirAsia India had a market share of 4.1 per cent, followed by Vistara (3.8), JetLite (2.3) and Trujet (0.4).

--IANS

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