Amidst talks of sell-off, Air India's market share in May grows to 13%

Key highlights

• Air India improved market share to 13% in May while most others declined.
• IndiGo market share fell to 41.4% in May.
• Vistara and GoAir also improved market share to 3.3% and 8.5% respectively in May.

Even as talks of selling Air India are gaining traction because of its rising losses, the national carrier has improved its market share in the month of May.

Air India's market share improved from 12.9% in April to 13% in May, the air traffic report by Directorate General of Civil Aviation said on Monday. 

Market leader – IndiGo, saw a small decline from 41.4% in April to 41.2% in May. SpiceJet and Jet Airways market share in May were at 12.6% and 15.2% respectively in May from 12.9% and 15.2% respectively in April.

Market share of full service carrier – Vistara and GoAir also improved its respective market shares.

Vistara was at 3.2% in April and increased to 3.3% in May. While GoAir was at 8.1% in April and improved to 8.5% in May.

The aviation regulator on Sunday announced the suspension of flying license of Air Carnival, which has not operated a single flight since early April. Market share of the airline at the end of the first calendar year quarter was 0.1%.

Passengers carried by all domestic airlines increased in the month of May.

“The passenger load factor in the month of May 2017 has shown increasing trend compared to previous month primarily due to beginning of tourist season,” DGCA said.

The passengers carried by Air India was at 13.23 lakh in May; while Jet Airways was at 15.51 lakh, SpiceJet carried 12.79 lakh and IndiGo carried 41.91 lakh in the same month.

"Passengers carried by domestic airlines during Jan-May 2017 were 465.87 lakhs as against 396.04 lakhs during the corresponding period of previous year thereby registering a growth of 17.63%," DGCA said.