India’s domestic air traffic witnessed a near 47 per cent month-on-month jump at 10.355 million passengers in September, driven primarily by strong festival bookings. Domestic passenger traffic in September 2021 was 7.066 million.
On a sequential basis, September traffic was up by 2 per cent over August. For the first nine months of the year (January to September), domestic air traffic witnessed a 65 per cent year-on-year rise at 87.424 million. Domestic air passenger traffic was at 53.111 million in the year-ago-period.
The average passenger load factor (PLF) — a metric that measures capacity utilisation by the airline — was at over 77 per cent across 10 players, according to data released by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). PLF improved over the month of August when it was at around 72.5.
SpiceJet had the highest PLF at 85.8, followed by Vistara at 85.4. Market leader IndiGo had a PLF of 81.4, while for new entrant Akasa Air it was 81.2.
Market share
Low-cost carrier IndiGo maintained its leadership position with a 57.7 per cent market share in September and also for the nine-month-period. Tata Group entities, Air India, Vistara and Air Asia, had a combined market share of 24.7 per cent in September.
The individual market share of each airline was 9.2 per cent (Air India), 9.6 per cent (Vistara) and 5.9 per cent (Air Asia), respectively.
Akasa Air saw its market share increase from 0.2 per cent to 0.9 per cent, as it scaled up operations and announced new routes. In terms of on-time performance, Vistara was rated as the best at 91 per cent followed by Air Asia at 89.8 per cent.
Air India reported an improvement in its on-time performance, up to 87.1 per cent (its best so far this year), and was ranked at No 3. IndiGo came fourth at 84.1 per cent.