Domestic air traffic registers 52% annual growth; Air India market share falls | Read to know about others

New Delhi: The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) informed that the domestic air passenger traffic registered an annual growth of 51.70 per cent during January – March 2023. The monthly passenger growth was also 21.41 per cent. During the same period, domestic airlines carried 375.04 lakh passengers between January-March 2023, as against 247.23 lakh in the same period last year.

Landmark achievement

Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia also shared the news on Twitter calling it a “landmark achievement”, and said, “This shows their growing domestic footprint & the potential to grab a bigger share of the global aviation market.” “A landmark achievement for the Indian aviation sector as domestic airlines witness an annual growth of 51.70% in passenger traffic from Jan-Mar 2022 to Jan-Mar 2023. This shows their growing domestic footprint & the potential to grab a bigger share of the global aviation market,” tweeted Scindia. 

Passenger Load Factor

It has been observed that Vistara, Air India, Air Asia, and Star Air have shown an increase in PLF in March 2023 vis-à vis March-2019 whereas Indigo, SpiceJet, and Go Air have decreased. SpiceJet continued to lead the Passenger Load Factor (PLF) chart with 92.3 per cent share in March as compared to 94.1 per cent in February. Vistara has shown an increase with 91.6 per cent load factor. The occupancy rate of Go First, Air India and IndiGo was 90.2 per cent, 85.1 per cent and 84 per cent respectively. Akasa Air registered a load factor of 73.6 per cent in March 2023.

Indian Airlines Market Share

According to the DGCA report, IndiGo, Vistara, and Air Asia have shown an increase in their Market Share in March 2023 vis-à-vis March-2019 whereas Air India, SpiceJet, GoAir have shown a decrease.

During the last quarter of the financial year 2023, IndiGo flew the most number of passengers thereby bagging the biggest market share of 55.7 per cent. The airline carried 209.07 passengers during January-March 2023 period. While Air India’s market share was 9.0 per cent and flew 33.70 lakh passengers. However, this number is less than the number of flyers the airline carried in the March 2019 quarter – 45.01 lakh. Air India then had a market share of close to 13 per cent. Notably, India’s newest airline Akasa Air flew 11.38 lakh passengers in Jan-Mar 2023 quarter, earning a 3 per cent market share.

On-Time Performance (OTP)-scheduled domestic airlines

OTP for most airlines indicates a decrease in comparison to March 2019 however, Indigo and Air India have improved their OTP. OTP of scheduled domestic airlines has been computed for four metro airports viz. Bangalore, Delhi, Hyderabad, and Mumbai, and the comparison between 2019 and 2023 is as follows:

Significant decrease in passengers’ complaints

There has been a significant decrease in passengers’ complaints and an increase in the resolution of complaints and an increase in the resolution of complaints, according to the DGCA report. The complaints have decreased in March 2023 (347 Complaints) vis-à-vis March 2019 (1684 Complaints). While the resolution of complaints has increased to 99 per cent (approx.) in March 2023 compared to 93.5 per cent for March 2019. Flight Problem (60 per cent), Baggage (16.3 per cent), Refund (11.8 per cent) were major reasons for complaint in 2019 whereas for March 2023 major reasons included Flight Problem (38.6 per cent), Baggage (22.2 per cent), Refund (11.5 per cent) and Others (11.5 per cent).

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