New Delhi, July 18 : Discount offers lifted India's domestic air passenger traffic by 18.36 per cent in June, official data showed on Wednesday.
According to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), 1.13 crore passengers were ferried by the domestic airlines during the month under review, up from 95.68 lakh reported during the corresponding month of 2017.
However, on a sequential basis, the traffic grew by around 5.04 per cent.
It had risen to 1.19 crore in May 2018, while in April it was 1.15 crore.
As per the data furnished by the DGCA, the passenger traffic during the January-June 2018 period grew by 22 per cent.
"Passengers carried by domestic airlines during January-June 2018 were 684.83 lakhs as against 561.55 lakhs during the corresponding period of previous year thereby registering a growth of 21.95 per cent," the DGCA said in its monthly domestic traffic report.
The data disclosed that low-cost carrier SpiceJet had the highest passenger load factor (PLF) -- a measure of capacity utilisation of the airline -- at 93.3 per cent during June.
"This is the 39th month in a row that we have flown the highest loads in the country.
This has set a new benchmark in brand preference in the Indian aviation market and we are proud of it," said Shilpa Bhatia, Chief Sales and Revenue officer, SpiceJet.
SpiceJet was followed by GoAir with a PLF of 88.6 per cent, IndiGo at 88.3 per cent and Vistara at 84.8 per cent.
"The passenger load factor in the month of June 2018 has shown declining trend compared to previous month primarily due to the end of tourist season," the monthly statistical analysis statement said.
The data noted that IndiGo led the industry with 84.1 per cent punctuality rate (on-time performance) at the four major airports of Bengaluru, New Delhi, Hyderabad and Mumbai.
It was followed by SpiceJet (81.2) and Jet Airways and JetLite (78.7).
Besides, the overall cancellation rate of scheduled domestic airlines for June 2018 stood at 0.97 per cent.
In addition, the data disclosed that a total of 677 passenger-related complaints were received last month.
"The number of complaints per 10,000 passengers carried for the month of June 2018 has been around 0.60," the statement said.
The data revealed that IndiGo led the industry with the highest market share of 41.3 per cent, followed by Jet Airways (13.3), Air India (12.5), SpiceJet (12.1), and GoAir (9.3).
AirAsia India had a market share of 5.3 per cent, followed by Vistara (4), JetLite (1.7) and Trujet (0.5).
"The 18.36 per cent growth in June over the previous year shows the continued robustness of growth in the domestic air market as it comes at the end of the peak summer season," said Sharat Dhall, COO (B2C), Yatra.com
"The year to date growth of 21.95 per cent is expected to continue, especially with airlines announcing airfare sales in order to accelerate the passenger load factor as we get into the monsoon season.
We are seeing fares as low as Rs 999 which will further catalyze growth in the already buoyant domestic air passenger market."
Aloke Bajpai, ixigo CEO and Co-founder said: "With the arrival of monsoon across the country, and all major airlines offering big discounts, flight fares for many popular sectors dropped considerably which contributed to the growth in flight bookings.
ixigo is seeing a year on year growth of 3x in flight bookings."
--IANS
rv/sed.
Source: IANS
