Domestic air passenger traffic rises 11pc in India

New Delhi: Domestic air passenger traffic in the country recorded an annual growth of nearly 11 per cent to 1.26 crore in October, according to official data released on Thursday (16 November). The traffic stood at 1.14 crore passengers in October 2022 and at 1.22 crore passengers in September this year.

The data released by aviation regulator DGCA showed that IndiGo carried 79.07 lakh passengers, garnering a domestic market share of 62.6 per cent in October. The market share was lower compared to 63.4 per cent registered in September.

Last month, Air India's domestic market share climbed to 10.5 per cent from 9.8 per cent in September while that of Vistara and AirAsia India (renamed as AIX Connect) declined to 9.7 per cent and 6.6 per cent, respectively, in October.

SpiceJet's market share grew to 5 per cent in October from 4.4 per cent in September while that of Akasa Air remained unchanged at 4.2 per cent.

"Passengers carried by domestic airlines during January-October 2023 were 1,254.98 lakhs as against 988.31 lakhs during the corresponding period of previous year thereby registering annual growth of 26.98 per cent and monthly growth of 10.78 per cent," the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said.

As many as 587 passengers were denied boarding by scheduled airlines in October, according to the data.

A total of 30,307 passengers were affected by flight cancellations and 1,78,227 passengers were impacted due to flight delays last month.

-B