Domestic airlines passengers take off with a rise of 28% in March

New Delhi, April 19: Domestic airlines has seen a growth in the passenger traffic with a rise of 28.03% in March this year as compared to the same period last year, with domestic carriers flying 1.15 crore passengers.

Passengers carried by the domestic airlines between January and March this year also saw a growth of 23.87% as compared to the same period last year, data released today by aviation watchdog Directorate General of Civil Aviation said.

SpiceJet posted the highest passenger load-factor at 95 percent, followed by the IndiGo at 89 percent and Vistara at 88.2%. Passenger load-factor measures how efficiently an airline fills its seats.

Market leader IndiGo pipped SpiceJet on 'on-time performance' at 84.1%. SpiceJet was at 83.9 per cent and the Vistara closely following at 83%. The on-time performance of disinvestment-bound Air India improved from 68.8 per cent in February to 76.5%. The performance was computed based on data from Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad airports.

As far as market share was concerned, the IndiGo continued to dominate Indian skies in March with a 39.5% share. Jet Airways occupied the second place with 15% share and Air India at 13.4 per cent.

IndiGo carried 45.76 lakh passengers in the month while Jet Airways carried 17.43 lakh passengers. The load factor, however, saw a decline in March compared to the previous month due to the end of the vacation period, the DGCA said.

The overall cancellation of the airlines stood at 1.38%, higher than 0.89% in February.

While 80.25% of the Air Deccan flights remained cancelled in March, Vistara on the other hand reported zero cancellations. More than 60.5% of the cancellations were due to technical reasons, DGCA said.

During this period, about 657 passenger-related complaints were received. They ranged from flight problem to baggage and customer services.

On the other hand, SpiceJet remained upbeat over its performance, stating that the load factor of 95 per cent comes in the traditionally lean period of March.

"For three years in a row, SpiceJet has flown with the highest load factor in the Indian aviation market and for the 35 months in a row, our load factor has been in the excess of 90 per cent," said Shilpa Bhatia, chief sales and revenue officer of SpiceJet.