India's domestic air traffic in September rose 18.3 percent compared to the same month last year. Domestic airlines carried approximately 1.23 crore passengers last month, data released by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on October 12 showed.
September marks the seventh straight month when domestic air traffic in India has surpassed pre-Covid levels in India.
Moreover, air traffic increased by 29.1 percent to 11.28 crore passengers in the January-September period compared to last year's data. However, domestic air traffic in September fell 1.3 percent compared to August when airlines carried 1.24 crore passengers.
Air traffic has returned to pre-Covid levels in India. In September 2019, domestic airlines carried 1.15 crore passengers.
The aviation pie
The market share of India's largest airline, IndiGo, rose 10 basis points in September after falling 10 basis points in August.
IndiGo had seen its market share rise for three straight months after the collapse of GoFirst, which stopped all operations on May 2.
IndiGo's market share for September stood at 63.4 percent compared to 63.3 in August. The airline carried 77.70 lakh passengers during the month.
The airline's market share had risen by 180 basis points in June, 390 basis points in May, 70 basis points in April, 90 basis points in March and 130 basis points in February.
One basis point is one-hundredth of a percentage point.
Vistara overleaped Air India to become the second-largest domestic carrier in September and garnered a market share of 10 percent, while flying 12.29 lakh passengers during the period.
Vistara has gained market share in the last three months after it fell to 8.1 percent at the end of June 2023. The airline's market share rose 30 basis points in July, 140 basis points in August and 20 basis points in September.
Vistara's market share had fallen to 8.1 percent in June from 9 percent in May.
Air India's market share remained unchanged in September at 9.8 percent, the airline carried 11.97 lakh passengers last month.
The latest Tata Group airline witnessed its market share dec.line from 9.2 percent in January to 8.6 percent in April, falling 20-30 basis points every month.
AirAsia India, which, is also part of the Tata stable, maintained its fourth spot in terms of market share. Its market share fell by 40 basis points to 6.7 percent in September, as the carrier served 8.16 lakh passengers.
September marks the third straight month of market share fall for AirAsia India. The airline's market share fell 50 basis points in July, then it fell another 40 basis points in August and another 40 basis points in September.
AirAsia India had become the fourth largest player in terms of market share in March and has maintained the position ever since.
The new entrant Akasa Air remained behind SpiceJet in terms of market share in September after the airline struggled with pilot shortages and aircraft grounding during the month.
Akasa Air had overtaken SpiceJet in June and widened the gap between itself and SpiceJet in July.
Akasa Air carried 5.17 lakh passengers in September garnering a market share of 4.2 percent, which remained unchanged compared to August.
The airline's market share fell 100 basis points in August compared to July.
SpiceJet also saw its market share remain unchanged in September after months of market share decline. The airline carried 5.45 lakh passengers garnering a market share of 4.4 percent.
On August 14, the Supreme Court issued a contempt notice to low-cost airline SpiceJet's Chairman and Managing Director Ajay Singh on a plea filed by Credit Suisse, which accused the cash-strapped carrier of failing to comply with a court-approved settlement plan for payment of dues, adding to the Gurugram-based company's troubles.
In the last few months various lessors of SpiceJet have sought repossession of aircraft and some of the cases have been settled by the airline.
On August 9, Sun Group Chairman Kalanithi Maran filed an application in the Delhi High Court and sought for attachment of 50 percent of SpiceJet's daily revenues towards payment of Rs 393 crore that the low-cost airline owes him.
SpiceJet has seen its market share fall 20 basis points in July, 100 basis points in June, 40 basis points in May, 60 basis points in April, 70 basis points in March, 20 basis points in February and 30 basis points in January.
The airline's market share had fallen consecutively for the last 14 months in a row, data from the DGCA showed. SpiceJet had a peak market share of 10.7 percent in February 2022.
Most of GoFirst's market share of 6.4 percent carrying 8.29 lakh passengers in April has gone the way of IndiGo for the last three months, as the latter has seen its market share rise 590 basis points in the last three months.
The passenger load factor, or the occupancy rate, of SpiceJet, Vistara, IndiGo, Air India, and AirAsia India stood at 91.4 percent, 92.0 percent, 84.7 percent, 84.7 percent, and 82.5 percent, respectively, in September.
Akasa Air, India's newest carrier, saw its passenger load factor rise slightly in September to 88.1 percent in September from 87.3 percent in August and 86.6 percent in July.
The airline completed one full year of operations on August 7, 2023.
As many as 246 passenger complaints were received in September, data shows. The number of complaints per 10,000 passengers carried was around 0.20.
In September, IndiGo had the best on-time performance, for the third straight month in a row.
IndiGo recorded an on-time performance of 83.6 percent at four metro airports — Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Mumbai in September.
Air Asia and Air India were the second and third followed by Vistara.
On-time performance of Indian carriers fell around 5 percent in September when compared to August after improving 2-5 percent in August compared to July.
On-time performance of Indian airlines fell in September as a number of flights were rescheduled due to the 2023 G20 New Delhi summit and travel restrictions at the time.
According to news reports, the schedule of around 1,000 domestic flights got disrupted due to the G20 summit. The Union government had instructed airlines to curtail frequency by a fourth throughout the G20 Summit which took place in September in the national capital. The order was issued due to the parking constraints at the Delhi airport.
On-time performance of airlines in India fell in June and July as heavy rainfall across India forced airlines to delay flights. On-time performance in July and June witnessed a drop of 2-5 percent and 4-5 percent, respectively, compared to June and May.
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