December 2021 Aviation Data: Air passenger traffic surges 53%

Representative image (Source: Reuters)

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, albeit with some silver linings.

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

Air passenger volume saw a 53 percent Year on Year (YoY) uptick, with Spicejet leading the passenger load factor of 86 percent, followed by Indigo's load factor, which stood at 80.2 percent for the month of December 2021.

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Indigo, which flew 61.41 lakh passengers last month, saw its market share surge marginally from 54.3 percent in November to around 54.8 percent in December 2021, while the market share of Spicejet, which flew 11.51 lakh passengers in December, remained unchanged at 10.3 percent.

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Vistara registered an occupancy rate of 78.1 percent, while Air India stood at 78.2 percent for the last month of 2021. Overall, 2021 saw a slight rise in the number of people who travelled domestically via air at 8.38 crore, compared to around 6.3 crore people who flew within the country in 2020.