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Domestic airlines flew 95.83 lakh passengers in September registering an increase of 16.4 per cent over 82.30 lakh passengers flown during the same period of the previous year.
IndiGo flew the highest number of passengers at 36.65 lakh followed by Jet Airways with 14.77 lakh passengers and SpiceJet with 13.20 lakh passengers, the latest data released by the Directorate-General of Civil Aviation showed.
The state-owned Air India was at the fourth spot with 12.93 lakh passengers during the month while GoAir flew 8.09 lakh passengers, Air Asia flew 3.94 lakh passengers and Vistara flew 3.62 lakh passengers.
SpiceJet, however recorded the highest Passenger Load Factor of 94.2 per cent followed by GoAir (88.5 per cent) and IndiGo (85.2 per cent).
Passenger load factorPassenger load factor shows how many of the total seats on offer by each airline are getting filled.
The industry paid ₹2.62 crore as compensation to over 1.22 lakh passengers affected by cancellations and delays in flights among others. This includes paying over ₹1.13 crore as compensation to over 100,000 passengers who were affected by flight delays.
IndiGo reported the best on-time performance among all the airlines at 89.8 per cent at the four metro airports in Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bengaluru. Vistara took the second spot reporting an OTP of 86.8 per cent followed by SpiceJet (86.4 per cent) and Air India (Domestic) at 78.4 per cent.
Positive momentumCommenting on the data, Sharat Dhall, Chief Operating Officer, (B2C), Yatra.com, said the passenger growth in September showed a “continuing positive momentum in the domestic air market even in a traditionally lean travel period.”
He pointed out that the year-on-year growth of 16.91 per cent in September puts India amongst the fastest growing air passenger markets in the world.
“We believe that this growth momentum is likely to continue in the coming months, which are some of the strongest months for travel in the year, with a number of festivals and long-weekends acting as a booster,” Dhall added.
Shilpa Bhatia, Chief Sales and Revenue Officer, SpiceJet, said this was the 31st month-in-a-row that the airline has flown with load factors in excess of 90 per cent — which she claimed was a feat unparalleled in global aviation history.
“This is also the fifth consecutive month when our load factors have been over 94 per cent,” she added.
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