Aviation data: Air passenger traffic at 64.08 lakh, down 17.1% YoY in January

Aviation data: Air passenger traffic has also fallen 43 percent month-on-month in January amid the third COVID-19 wave.

Moneycontrol News

February 18, 2022 / 15:06 IST

Representative image.

Airlines suffered one of their worst months in recent times, as the COVID-19 variant Omicron wrecked their flight plan, according to latest data from the aviation regulator.

DGCA reported monthly air passenger traffic for January, which noted a 43 percent month-on-month (MoM) fall in air traffic, at 64.08 lakh passengers. This was 17.1 percent lower as compared to January last year.

The panic was severe and the capacity utilisation of all domestic airlines fell in January. Here's a quick look at the passenger load factor (PLF) for all airlines.

Airline	January 2022	December 2021
IndiGo	66.6%	80.2%
SpiceJet	73.4%	86%
Air India	60.6%	78.2%
AirAsia India	60.5%	74.2%
GoFIRST	66.7%	79%
Vistara	61.6%	78.1%

IndiGo was the largest airline, with 55.5 percent market share in January. Following is the market share for the month of January, for the major airlines.

January 2022	Market Share
IndiGo	55.5%
SpiceJet	10.6%
Air India	10.2%
Vistara	7.5%
AirAsia India	4.6%
GoFIRST	9.9%

In terms of passenger complaints, a total of 501 complaints had been received by the scheduled domestic airlines in January 2022. The number of complaints per 10,000 passengers carried for the month was around 0.78.

Major reasons for complaints are flight problems and refunds. Of the total complaints received, around 85 percent or 427 have been addressed.

Bearing the brunt of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the surge in cases of the Omicron variant, the aviation sector saw a lean December 2021, albeit with some silver linings.

Per the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) in its monthly statement, the number of domestic passengers who flew in December stood at 1.12 crore, around 6.7 percent higher than the 1.05 crore travellers who boarded flights in November 2021.

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