Domestic air traffic rises 4.7% YoY in January 2024 to 1.31 crore passengers

During January 2024, a total of 732 passenger related complaints had been received by the scheduled domestic airlines

Passengers carried by domestic airlines during January 2024 stood at 1.31 crore as against 1.25 crore during the corresponding period of the previous year registering an annual growth and a monthly growth of 4.69 percent, data released by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on February 15 shows.

IndiGo — the airline with the largest market share — saw a slight dip at 60.2 percent followed by Air India at the second spot with a 12.2 percent market share in January.

Vistara and SpiceJet were the airlines with maximum passenger load factors (PLF) in January this year, as per the DGCA data.

Cancellation factor

The overall cancellation rate of scheduled domestic airlines for the month of January 2024 has been 3.67 percent.

Flybig, a regional airline based in Gurugram (Haryana), recorded the highest cancellation rate of 11.76 percent, followed way behind by IndiGo at 5 percent and Spice Jet at 3.48 percent, Air India at 2.06 percent, while Vistara and Akasa Air recorded cancellation rate of 0.86 percent and 0.17 percent, respectively.

Among the reasons behind cancellations, the weather remained the paramount factor with a share of 82.8 percent followed by technical, operational and commercial factors at 4.1 percent, 2.6 percent and 0.3 percent, respectively.

Complaints

During January 2024, a total of 732 passenger-related complaints were received by the scheduled domestic airlines. The number of complaints per 10,000 passengers carried for January has been around 0.56. The major reasons for complaints are flight problem-related. Airlines have received a total of 732 complaints of which 727 (approximately 99 percent) have been addressed.

Punctuality

The new entrant in India's aviation sector, Akasa Air, was the most punctual among the airlines with an on-time performance of 71.8 percent followed by Vistara and IndiGo at 67.8 percent and 60.3 percent, respectively. AIX Connect, Air India and SpiceJet lagged with lower punctuality rates.

The on-time performance is measured by the regulator at four metro airports of Bengaluru, Delhi, Hyderabad and Mumbai.

Delays and compensations

According to the data, a total of 1,374 passengers were affected by delayed boarding and an amount of Rs 12.84 crore was spent by the airlines as compensation and facilities. In the cancellations category, 68,352 passengers were impacted and Rs 14.37 crore was spent by the carriers as compensation and facilities. Around 4,82,505 passengers were impacted by flight delays in January 2024.