Domestic air passenger traffic fell to about 94.13 lakh passengers, down 10.67 per cent in July, as compared with the preceding month when airlines carried about 105.37 lakh passengers.
According to data available on the Ministry of Civil Aviation’s website, and collated by Network Thoughts (an Aviation analysis website), the industry saw an average of 47,500 fewer passengers per day in July, over the previous month.
The website said that the average per-day passengers stood at 303,645 in July (351,257). Indian carriers deployed 8.41 per cent fewer flights in July while international flight departures were up 4.67 per cent and arrivals were up 4.28 per cent.
Departing passengers were down 3.69 per cent over last month and arriving passengers down 26.04 per cent over last month, per the website.
According to analysts, the June-September quarter is usually a lean quarter. “Given that the airfares have skyrocketed, that could be a reason for the decline,” said an expert.
BusinessLine was not able to independently verify the data. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation posts its data in the third week of the preceding month.
When it comes to the average on-time performance for airlines in July, AirAsia India lead the pack with 95.69 per cent on-time performance, followed by Go First (89.74 per cent), Vistara (88.92 per cent), SpiceJet (85.25 per cent), Air India (85.1 per cent) and IndiGo (80.98 per cent).
In June, IndiGo’s passenger load factor fell to 78.6 percent (81 percent in May). SpiceJet’s passenger load factor fell to 84.1 percent (89.1 per cent).
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