Over 5.31 crore people travelled on domestic airlines in the first nine months of calendar 2021, the aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said. This is over 20 per cent higher than the number of air travellers during the corresponding period of last year.

For the month of September alone, the number was 70.66 lakh which is nearly 79 per cent higher than last September and over 5 per more than this August. While IndiGo carried 39.69 lakh passengers in September, with a 56.2 per cent share of the domestic market, SpiceJet flew 6.02 lakh passengers, accounting for a 8.5 per cent share, according to the data shared by DGCA.

Air India, Go First (previously known as GoAir), Vistara and AirAsia India carried 8.53 lakh, 5.8 lakh, 6.12 lakh and 4.13 lakh passengers, respectively, during the month.

The occupancy rate for the six major airlines in September was between 63.7 per cent and 78.8 per cent. The occupancy rate for SpiceJet was 78.8 per cent. The occupancy rates for IndiGo, Vistara, Go First, Air India and AirAsia India were 73.6 per cent, 72.4 per cent, 74.1 per cent, 63.7 per cent and 68 per cent, respectively..

Pandemic-hit

The aviation sector has been significantly impacted due to the travel restrictions imposed in India and other countries in view of the pandemic. India resumed domestic passenger flights on May 25 last year after a gap of two months due to the Coronavirus pandemic.

The DGCA data showed that IndiGo had the best on-time performance of 95.5 per cent at four metro airports – Bengaluru, Delhi, Hyderabad and Mumbai. AirAsia India and Go First were at the second and third positions with 95.1 per cent and 94.4 per cent on-time performance, respectively.

All airlines opted for cost-reducing measures such as pay cuts, leave without pay and layoffs to tide over the Coronavirus-induced crisis.

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