Domestic air passenger traffic in July rose 61% as compared to June: DGCA

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Domestic air passenger traffic surged by 60.84 percent in July as compared to June, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said on August 13.

The total passenger load in July stood at 50.07 lakh, whereas, the number of passengers carried by domestic airlines in June was 31.13 lakh and 19.84 lakh in May.

The passenger traffic in July 2021 also more than doubled when compared to the same month in the past year, the aviation sector regulator said. In July last year, the number of passengers carried by domestic airlines stood at 21.07 lakhs.

Notably, the flight restrictions have been relatively eased as compared to July last year, when complete lockdowns were imposed by several states to curb the pace of COVID-19 transmission. Domestic airlines were allowed to operate at 33 percent capacity utilisation in July 2020 compared to the 65 percent capacity utilisation allowed in July 2021.

The DGCA has further increased the capacity utilisation on domestic flights on August 13, now airlines are allowed to operate 72.5 percent of their capacity in the domestic market.

The passenger load factor of major scheduled commercial airlines improved in July as compared to the previous month. IndiGo's PLF rose to 66.2 percent in July from 62.7 percent in June. Similarly, SpiceJet's PLF rose to 74.6 percent in July from 71 percent in June, Air India's PLF rose to 64.3 percent in July from 58.4 percent and Vistara's PLF rose to 69.2 percent from 60 percent in the previous month.

GoFirst, formerly know as GoAir, saw its PLF fall from 70.9 percent in June to 67.1 percent in July. PLF measures capacity utilization of transport services, including airlines.

In terms of market share, InterGlobe Aviation Ltd-operated IndiGo led the sector with a 58.6 percent market share in June. The airline carried in July carried 29.32 lakhs passengers compared to 17.02 lakhs passengers in the previous month.

Air India’s domestic market share fell to 13.4 percent in July from 16.5 percent in June, the airline carried 6.7 lakh passengers during the month against 5.14 lakh in June.

SpiceJet carried 4.56 lakh passengers, constituting a 9.1 percent market share, and GoFirst carried 3.42 lakh passengers, registering a 6.8 percent market share, during July.

Vistara and AirAsia India carried about 4.07 lakh passengers and 1.65 lakh passengers, respectively, during July. Vistara's market share jumped to 8.1 percent in July from 7.2 percent in June. AirAsia India recorded a market share of 3.3 percent during the same period.

The DGCA has allowed airlines to sell seats up to 72.5 percent of an airline’s pre-covid capacity on domestic flights paving way for airlines to deploy more capacity on domestic routes.

The government has during the ongoing covid-19 pandemic imposed a capacity cap to prevent the spread of infection. Scheduled international commercial flights remain suspended, at least till August 31.

The restriction does not apply to international all-cargo flights, those under bilateral air bubble agreements, and those specifically approved by the aviation regulator.