Domestic airlines flew 1.12 crore passengers in December last year, registering a growth of 17.69 per cent over the 95.52 lakh passengers flown during the same period the previous year.

The latest data released by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) shows that IndiGo remained the market leader, having flown 44.30 lakh passengers in December 2017 while Jet Airways took the second spot with 16.37 lakh passengers. Air India managed to edge out SpiceJet from the third spot by flying 14.72 lakh passengers against 14.27 lakh passengers flown by the Gurugram-headquartered low-cost SpiceJet. Among the other airlines, GoAir carried 10.80 lakh passengers, AirAsia (4.93 lakh) and Vistara (4.13 lakh).

Passenger load

SpiceJet, however, reported the highest passenger load factor of 95.6 per cent among all the domestic airlines. It was followed by GoAir at 92 per cent, IndiGo (90.8 per cent) and Vistara (87.7 per cent). Passenger load factor shows how many of the seats on offer by airlines are filled. IndiGo reported the best on-time performance (OTP) among all the airlines at 81.1 per cent at the four metro airports in Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bengaluru. SpiceJet took the second spot reporting an OTP of 78.4 per cent followed by Vistara (74.5 per cent) and Air India (Domestic) 70.8 per cent.

Compensation

The industry paid ₹4.18 crore as compensation to over 2.62 lakh passengers affected by cancellations and delays in flights. This includes over ₹1.84 crore to over 2.4 lakh passengers who were affected by delays.

Commenting on the DGCA data, Shilpa Bhatia, Chief Sales and Revenue Officer, SpiceJet, said, “This is the 33rd month in a row that SpiceJet has had an excess of 90 per cent passenger load factor, a feat unparalleled in the aviation industry.”

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