Domestic passenger volume rose 65% to 10 mn in September: DGCA

NEW DELHI: Domestic air passenger volume grew 64.61 per cent to 10.35 million in September over the same period last year, according to a data released by aviation safety regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Wednesday.

Indian domestic carriers (excluding newly launched Akasa Air) had flown a total of 7.66 million passengers on the local routes a year ago, the data showed.

Akasa Air commenced its flight services on domestic routes from August 7 this year. The average passenger load factor of these carriers stood at 77.5 per cent against 72.5 per cent PLF delivered in August 2022, the DGCA data show. PLF is an airline metric that measures how much of an airline’s passenger carrying capacity is used.

In terms of market share, leading carrier IndiGo cornered 57 per cent of the total domestic traffic pie, carrying 59.72 lakh passengers across its domestic network followed by full service carrier Vistara, which flew 9.96 lakh passengers with 9.6 per cent market share.

The combined market share of Vistara, Air India and AirAsia India stood at 24.7 per cent in September.

Besides, Vistara also had the best on-time performance with 91 per cent of its flights arriving and departing from four key airports - Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bengaluru - on time. In Vistara, Tata Group holds 49 per cent while in AirAsia India, it has 83.67 per cent holding. Moreover, Tata Group regained the control of Air India on January 27 this year following its privatisation.