Domestic Air Travel Grew by Almost 17% in November: DGCA

Domestic air traffic in India rose to 1.04 crore in November -- up 16.99 per cent -- from 89.66 lakh reported for the corresponding month of 2016, official data by DGCA showed.

The total domestic air passenger traffic had risen by 20.52 per cent to 104.51 lakh in October.

Data furnished by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) revealed that passenger traffic during the January-November period grew by over 17 per cent.

"Passengers carried by domestic airlines during January-November 2017 were 1,059.34 lakhs as against 903.36 lakhs during the corresponding period of previous year thereby registering a growth of 17.27 per cent," the DGCA said in its monthly domestic traffic report.

Market Stats by DGCA

According to the data, low-cost carrier SpiceJet had the highest passenger load factor (PLF) -- a measure of capacity utilisation of the airline -- at 95.5 per cent during November.

"SpiceJet also recorded the highest load factor for the 32nd month in a row. The load factor at 95.5 per cent is also the highest in SpiceJet's history. This has set a new threshold in global aviation and we are proud of that," SpiceJet's CMD Ajay Singh said.

SpiceJet was followed by budget passenger carriers IndiGo with PLF at 90.7 per cent and GoAir at 90 per cent.

"The passenger load factor in the month of November 2017 has shown increasing trend compared to previous month primarily due to the ongoing tourist season," the monthly statistical analysis said.

The data noted that SpiceJet led the industry with 81.9 per cent punctuality rate (on-time performance) at four major airports of Bengaluru, New Delhi, Hyderabad and Mumbai. It was followed by IndiGo (80.4) and Air India's domestic operations (69.3).

The overall cancellation rate of scheduled domestic airlines for November 2017 stood at 0.48 per cent.

In addition, the data disclosed that a total of 716 passenger-related complaints were received last month.

"The number of complaints per 10,000 passengers carried for the month of Nov 2017 has been around 0.68," the monthly analysis said.

The data revealed that IndiGo led the industry with the highest market share of 39.4 per cent, followed by Jet Airways (15.2), Air India (13.6), SpiceJet (12.6), and GoAir (8.9).

AirAsia India had a market share of 4.2 per cent, followed by Vistara (3.6), JetLite (2.3) and Trujet (0.3).

Yatra.com's COO (B2C) Sharat Dhall said: "The month of November has been good for all the airlines as the passenger load factor continues to grow compared to the previous months."

"The domestic air passenger market grew by 16.99 per cent in November over last year and we are optimistic that this double digit growth will continue in the coming months driven by economical ticket prices, increasing capacity and a number of long weekends."