Domestic airlines register 28% growth in passengers in March 2018: DGCA

Mumbai: Domestic scheduled airlines carried 11.58 million passengers during March 2018, registering a 28% growth annually, as more passengers took to the skies during the lean season this year, data from Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) showed.

As a result, most commercial airlines registered a load factor of over 80% during March, the data showed.

Passengers carried by domestic airlines during the January-March 2018 period stood at 33.79 million as against 27.28 million during the corresponding period of the previous year, registering a growth of 23.87 %, the DGCA data stated.

“The high load factor during the lean travelling month of March shows a continued robustness in (domestic) demand with the ticket prices remaining benign,” said Sharat Dhall, COO (B2C) at online travel portal Yatra.

“The overall average prices across sectors was about 5% lower during March 2018 against the same period of the previous year as airlines inducted new and leased aircraft into their fleets during the last one year leading to an increase in capacity,” Dhall added.

IndiGo remained the market leader in terms of passengers carried as it flew 39.5% (or 4.58 million passengers) of the total domestic passengers carried by scheduled airlines during March. Jet Airways was the second largest carrier in this category and carried 16.6% (or 1.93 million passengers) of the total domestic passengers during this period. SpiceJet was the third largest carrier in terms of market share, accounting for 12.7% of the passengers flown during the month. The Ajay Singh-owned airline carried 1.47 million passengers during the month.

During March, Vistara flew 0.44 million domestic passengers, registering a 3.8% market share, while Air India flew 1.56 million passengers registering a 13.4% market share. Wadia Group-owned GoAir registered a 9% market share during March carrying 1.04 million passengers during the period. AirAsia India meanwhile carried 0.5 million passengers in March, registering 4.5% of the market share.

“SpiceJet has yet again recorded the highest passenger load factor in the industry. Clocking 95% occupancy in the traditionally lean travel month of March is an achievement that we are proud of,” said Shilpa Bhatia, chief sales and revenue officer, SpiceJet.

Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research and IBEF is not responsible for any errors in the same.