Domestic air passenger traffic grows nearly five-fold in May

Domestic air passenger traffic saw a strong recovery in demand as Indian carriers flew 1.20 crore passengers on the local routes in May, logging nearly five-fold year-on-year volume growth, DGCA data showed on Wednesday.

Domestic air passenger traffic saw a strong recovery in demand as Indian carriers flew 1.20 crore passengers on the local routes in May, logging nearly five-fold year-on-year volume growth, DGCA data showed on Wednesday. Domestic air passenger traffic in May 2021 stood at a meager 21-lakh, as per the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) data. Of the total 1.20 crore passengers flown by the domestic carriers in May 2022, market leader IndiGo transported around 70 lakh with 57.9 percent market share, followed by Mumbai-based carrier Go First with 12.76 lakh passengers, accounting for 10.8 percent of the total domestic traffic. The two full-service carriers -- Air India and Vistara, which are part of the Tata Group along with no-frills AirAsia India -- carried 8.23 lakh and 9.83 lakh passengers, respectively, in the previous month. AirAsia India flew 6.86 lakh passengers across the domestic routes in May 2022, the DGCA said. During the reporting month, budget carrier SpiceJet delivered the highest load factor at 89.1 percent followed by Go First at 86.5 percent, as per the monthly data. In aviation parlance, passenger Load Factor or Seat Factor is a measure of how much of an airline's passenger carrying capacity is used or the average percentage of seats filled in an aircraft. In terms of On-Time Performance (OTP), AirAsia India had its maximum number of flights operating on time with an OTP of 90.8 percent across four key airports. Vistara had the second-best OTP at 87.5 percent in the month under review, DGCA said. At present, DGCA publishes monthly on-time performance of domestic airlines from four metro airports -- Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, and Hyderabad.