December aviation data: Domestic passenger traffic rises 13.7% YoY, 9% MoM

During the January-December 2022 period, domestic air carriers carried 1,232.45 lakh passengers, up from 838.14 lakh in the year-ago period (Representative image)

India's domestic air traffic rose 13.7 percent year-on-year (YoY) to 127.35 lakh passengers in December 2022, data released by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on January 19 shows.

More people flew in December than in November when 116.79 lakh passengers took to the skies. The air traffic, however, was still lower than pre-COVID levels. In December 2019, domestic airlines flew 130.18 lakh passengers.

During the January-December 2022 period, domestic air carriers carried 1,232.45 lakh passengers, up from 838.14 lakh in the year-ago period, an annual growth of 47.05 percent, the civil aviation regulator said.

The market share of India's largest airline IndiGo again fell 80 basis points in December after a similar drop in November and October. The airline's market share is now 54.9 percent, with the low-cost carrier flying 69.97 lakh passengers in December.

One basis point is one-hundredth of a percentage point.

Air India leapfrogged Vistara to become the second-largest domestic carrier in December and garnered a market share of 9.2 percent, flying 11.71 lakh passengers during the period.

Vistara's market share in December also stood at 9.2 percent but the airline flew 11.70 lakh passengers in December. Vistara's market share flew 10 basis points in December. The airline had reversed the trend of falling market share in November but its market share fell once again in December after falling in September and October.

AirAsia India, which, too, is part of the Tata stable, remains at number four, with unchanged market share of 7.6 percent.

SpiceJet, like in November, remained at number five, accounting for 7.6 percent of the domestic market, the same as the previous month. The airline flew 9.64 lakh passengers in December.

The market share of Go First, formerly GoAir, stayed the same at 7.5 percent in December. It remained at the sixth position, carrying 9.51 lakh passengers during the month.

The passenger load factor, or the occupancy rate, of SpiceJet, IndiGo, Vistara, GoFirst, Air India and AirAsia India stood at 92.7 percent, 87.5 percent, 91.9 percent, 92.6 percent, 89.3 percent, and 89.8 percent, respectively, in December.

Akasa Air, India's newest carrier, saw a slight rise in its passenger load factor to 83.8 percent in December, its fifth month of operations, from 79.2 percent in November.

The airline carried 2.92 lakh passengers in December, a market share of 2.3 percent.

As many as 408 passenger complaints were received in December, data shows. The number of complaints per 10,000 passengers carried was around 0.32.

In December, IndiGo had the best on-time performance, for the second straight month in a row, of 88.6 percent at four metro airports—Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Mumbai.

Vistara and Air India were the second and third followed by AirAsia.