Domestic air traffic up by 17.69 per cent in December

Domestic air traffic registered a growth of over 17 per cent in December last year as compared the same month the previous year, a government data stated.

Domestic airlines carried 11.24 million passengers in December 2017 as compared to 9.55 million compared to the year-ago period, registering a growth of 17.69 per cent.

According to the monthly traffic data released by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), the passenger load factor (PLF), which is a measure of number of seats occupied in a plane, was the highest for SpiceJet with 95.6 per cent of its seats being sold.

GoAir was at the second spot with 92 per cent of seats occupied, followed by IndiGo (90.8 per cent), Jet Airways (88.5 per cent), Vistara (87.7 per cent) and Air India (81.8 per cent).
 

"This is the 33rd month in a row that SpiceJet has had an excess of 90 per cent PLF, a feat unparalleled in the aviation industry," Shilpa Bhatia, the Chief Sales and Revenue Officer of SpiceJet, said in a statement.

IndiGo regained its top position in terms of punctuality or on-time performance (OTP) with 81.1 per cent of its flights taking off and landing on time. It was followed by SpiceJet (78.4 per cent), Vistara (74.5 per cent), Air India (70.8 per cent), Go Air (68.4 per cent) and Jet Airways at the bottom (52.2 per cent).

IndiGo also continues to be the market leader cornering 39.4 per cent of the market share, the DGCA data stated.

While market shares remained more or less flat for most airlines, GoAir witnessed an increase from 8.9 per cent to 9.6 per cent while Jet Airways saw a dip from 15.2 per cent to 14.6 in November as compared to October.

"The year 2017 ended on a buoyant note for the airline industry with a strong passenger growth in the month of December.

"Despite localised issues such as bad weather conditions, poor visibility and excessive fog in various parts of the country, the domestic passenger market registered a strong growth of over 17.31 per cent in December over last year," Sharat Dhall, COO (B2C) of Yatra.com said.

TrueJet recorded the highest rate of cancellations at 3.1 per cent, above the industry average of 0.81 per cent for December.

There were nearly 2.6 lakh complaints regarding delayed and cancelled flights. Over 2,800 passengers were also denied boarding. Airlines spent a total Rs 41.7 million in compensating and arranging facilities for these passengers.