August aviation data: Akasa Air, SpiceJet lose market share; Vistara, IndiGo, Air India see gains

Overall, the country's domestic air traffic in August rose 5.7 percent compared to the same month last year.

Competition among domestic airlines in India is heating up with the country's largest airline in terms of market share IndiGo bouncing back to gain market share in August after losing market share in July.

The market share of Air India rose 40 basis points in August when compared to July as SpiceJet, and Akasa Air reported a 80 basis points, and 20 basis points fall in their respective market shares during the month.

In July, IndiGo had reported a 120 basis points jump in their market share when compared to June 2024. One basis point is one-hundredth of a percentage point.

Overall, the country's domestic air traffic in August rose 5.7 percent compared to the same month last year. The number climbed to 1.31 crore passengers, data released by the directorate general of civil aviation (DGCA) on September 13 showed.

Domestic air traffic fell in August, July and June when compared with May 2024's reading, which stood at 1.38 crore passengers, 1.32 crore passengers had taken to the skies in June 2024, while 1.29 crore passengers had booked flights in July.

Akasa Air was the most punctual airline operating in India overtaking Air India Express and Vistara in August 2024, data from the aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation showed. Vistara was the second most punctual airline followed by Air India Express. Akasa Air was the most punctual airline in India for the fourth straight month in a row till June after overtaking AIX Connect in March.

The aviation pie

The market share of India's largest airline, IndiGo, grew in August and July after falling 80 basis points in June. The airline had lost 160 basis points in January 2024's market share, but since then it has been on an upward trend.The airline's market share now stands at 62.4 percent, with the low-cost carrier flying 81.90 lakh passengers in August.

Air India remained the second-largest domestic carrier in August and garnered a market share of 14.7 percent, flying 19.29 lakh passengers during the period.

Vistara's market share in August came in at 10.3 percent, the airline flew 13.54 lakh passengers in during the month.

Vistara on April 7 had said that it was reducing capacity by 10 percent, which is around 25-30 flights daily, as the carrier strives to stabilise operations.

The market share of AIX Connect, which, too, is part of the Tata stable, fell 10 basis points to 4.4 percent, as the carrier served 5.77 lakh passengers in August.

SpiceJet's market share in August was 2.3 percent falling 80 basis points when compared to July. August marks the fifth straight month of market share fall for SpiceJet after its market share had fallen in July, June, May and April when compared to the previous months.

The airline carried 302,000 passengers in August 2024. The airline's market share has fallen from a peak market share of 10.7 percent in February 2022.

Akasa Air carried 5.92 lakh passengers in August garnering a market share of 4.5 percent 20 basis points lower than July.

The passenger load factor, or the occupancy rate, of SpiceJet, Vistara, IndiGo, Air India, and AIX Connect stood at 81 percent, 88.7 percent, 82.3 percent, 80.1 percent, and 84.4 percent, respectively, in August.

Akasa Air’s passenger load factor came in at 85.5 percent in August down from 86.4 percent in July, 89.6 percent in June, 90.3 percent in May, 87.9 percent in April, 88.4 percent in March and 92.4 percent in February. The airline completed two full year of operations on August 7, 2024.

On-Time Performance

Akasa Air turned in an on-time performance of 71.2 percent at the four metro airports – New Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Mumbai.

Vistara and AIX Connect were second and third, followed by IndiGo.

On-time performance of airlines had fallen in July and remain unchanged in August due to adverse weather conditions and monsoon impacting operations of flights across India.

On-time performance had risen in March 2024 after heavy fog forced flight delays throughout December, January, and February, but dipped again in April due to protests across the Tata Group airlines, and remained low in May, June and July due to adverse weather conditions.

Akasa Air reported a 5 percent rise in punctuality in April, however, all other airlines saw a fall in their punctuality when compared to March 2024.

Air traffic was also higher than pre-COVID levels. In June 2019, domestic airlines flew only 119.05 lakh passengers.

Cancellation factor

The overall cancellation rate of scheduled domestic airlines for August 2024 stood at 0.83 percent, around 120 basis points lower than the 1.9 percent in July, 1.43 percent in June, 1.7 percent in May and 0.80 percent in April 2024.

Flybig Air, a regional airline, recorded the highest cancellation rate of 20.2 percent, Alliance Air was second with a cancellation rate of 4.92 percent.

Indiaone Air had the third-highest cancellation rate at 4.92 percent and Fly91 was fourth at 4.2 percent.

SpiceJet at 2.57 percent, IndiGo at 0.64 percent, Akasa Air at 0.19 percent, AIX Connect at 1.38 percent, Air India at 0.21 percent and Vistara at 0.17 percent saw their cancellation rates fall in August.

Technical reasons was the biggest basis behind cancellations or termination of flights with a share at 45.1 percent followed by weather condition, miscellaneous, operational, and commercial at 22.2 percent, 19.9 percent, 12.1 percent and 0.6 percent, respectively.

Complaints

During August 2024, a total of 1,031 passenger-related complaints were received by scheduled domestic airlines. The number of complaints per 10,000 passengers carried for August has been around 0.79.

The major reasons for complaints are flight problem-related. Airlines have received a total 1,031 complaints of which 1,030 (approximately 99.8 percent) have been addressed.

Delays and compensations

According to the DGCA data, a total of 728 passengers were denied boarding in August and an amount of Rs 77.96 lakhs was spent by the airlines as compensation and facilities.

In the cancellations category, 38,599 passengers were impacted and Rs 1.13 crore was spent by the carriers as compensation and facilities in August.

Around 17,97,44 passengers were impacted by flight delays in August 2024 and received compensation of Rs 2.44 crore.