India's domestic air traffic in January nearly doubled, when compared to the same month last year. The number climbed to 125.42 lakh passengers carried, data released by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on February 20 shows.
However, domestic air traffic fell 1.5 percent in January when compared with December 2022's reading which stood at 127.35 lakh passengers.
The air traffic still remained lower than pre-COVID levels. In January 2020, domestic airlines flew 127.83 lakh passengers.
The aviation pie
The market share of India's largest airline, IndiGo, shrunk 30 basis points in January, after shedding nearly 80 basis points each month from October through December. The airline's market share is now 54.6 percent, with the low-cost carrier flying 68.47 lakh passengers in January.
One basis point is one-hundredth of a percentage point.
Air India remained the second-largest domestic carrier in January and garnered a market share of 9.2 percent, flying 11.55 lakh passengers during the period.
Vistara's market share in January fell 40 basis points to 8.8 percent, the airline flew 11.05 lakh passengers in January. The airline had reversed the trend of falling market share in November but its market share fell once again in December and also in January after falling in September and October.
The market share of Go First, formerly GoAir, jumped up 90 basis points to 8.4 percent in January. The airline leapfrogged the likes of AirAsia India and SpiceJet in January to take the number four spot in terms of market share, carrying 10.53 lakh passengers during the month.
AirAsia India, which, too, is part of the Tata stable, fell down to number five in terms of market share. Its market share fell 20 basis points to 7.4 percent, as the carrier served 9.30 lakh passengers in January.
SpiceJet fell to the number six spot in terms of market share, accounting for 7.3 percent of the domestic market, 30 basis points fall since December. The airline flew 9.14 lakh passengers in January.
The passenger load factor, or the occupancy rate, of SpiceJet, IndiGo, Vistara, GoFirst, Air India and AirAsia India stood at 91 percent, 82 percent, 89.4 percent, 90.9 percent, 87.5 percent, and 87 percent, respectively, in January.
Akasa Air, India's newest carrier, saw a slight fall in its passenger load factor to 82.8 percent in January, its sixth month of operations, from 83.8 percent in December.
The airline carried 3.57 lakh passengers in January, a market share of 2.8 percent.
As many as 418 passenger complaints were received in January, data shows. The number of complaints per 10,000 passengers carried was around 0.33.
In January, IndiGo had the best on-time performance, for the third straight month in a row, of 84.6 percent at four metro airports—Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Mumbai.
Akasa Air and Vistara were the second and third followed by Air India.
