India's October domestic air passenger traffic up 20%

Domestic air passenger traffic rose to 104.51 lakh in October -- up 20.52% -- from 86.72 lakh reported for the corresponding month of 2016, official data showed on Friday.

The total domestic air passenger traffic had risen by 16.43% to 95.83 lakh in September.

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

"Passengers carried by domestic airlines during January-October 2017 were 954.45 lakh as against 813.70 lakh during the corresponding period of the previous year, thereby registering a growth of 17.30%," the DGCA said in its monthly domestic traffic report.

According to the data, low-cost carrier SpiceJet had the highest passenger load factor (PLF) -- a measure of capacity utilisation of the airline -- at 93.7% during October.

"This is the 31st month-in-a-row that SpiceJet has flown with load factors in excess of 90% --- a feat unparalleled in global aviation history," said a SpiceJet Spokesperson.

SpiceJet was followed by budget passenger carriers GoAir with PLF at 87.6% and IndiGo at 87.3%.

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

The data noted that IndiGo led the industry with 83.9% punctuality rate (on-time performance) at four major airports of Bengaluru, New Delhi, Hyderabad and Mumbai. It was followed by SpiceJet (83.3) and Air India`s domestic operations (77.2).

The overall cancellation rate of scheduled domestic airlines for October 2017 stood at 0.50%.

In addition, the data disclosed that a total of 656 passenger-related complaints were received last month.

The data revealed that IndiGo led the industry with the highest market share of 39.5%, followed by Jet Airways (15.2), SpiceJet (13.1), Air India (13.1), and GoAir (8.8).

AirAsia India had a market share of 4.3%, followed by Vistara (3.5), JetLite (2) and Trujet (0.4).

"The number of complaints per 10,000 passengers carried for the month of Oct 2017 has been around 0.63," the aviation regulator said.

"Domestic air passengers for the year have been growing by around 17% year on year. October 2017 has outpaced the annual growth has been about 21%," said Aloke Bajpai, CEO and Co-Founder of ixigo.com. 

"This is on the back of a higher festive season demand and airlines offering much lower airfares even till the Diwali day. The fares were -- 30% -- lower on most of the routes. Hence with last-minute fares being affordable, more travel plans were fructified."

Yatra.com`s COO (B2C) Sharat Dhall said: "Continuous capacity expansion by the airlines on popular routes, addition of new sectors and slightly lower fares added to the growth momentum."

"We anticipate that Christmas and New Year`s bonanza will further accelerate the passenger traffic in the coming month."