New Delhi: Domestic air traffic rose nearly 16% in August, continuing its double digit growth, according to data released by the civil aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Monday.
About 9.69 million passengers flew in August, up from 8.38 million a year earlier.
“Passengers carried by domestic airlines during January-August 2017 were 754.11 lakh as against 644.68 lakh during the corresponding period of previous year, thereby registering a growth of 16.97%,” the DGCA said in its monthly domestic traffic report.
SpiceJet had the highest occupancy at 94.5% during August followed by AirAsia India (85.8%), GoAir (85.4%), IndiGo (83.6%) Vistara (83.4%), Jet Airways (80.7%) and Air India (76.1%).
“The passenger load factor in the month of August 2017 has shown increasing trend compared to previous month due to beginning of festive season,” the monthly statistical analysis said.
IndiGo had the best on-time performance in the four metros covered by DGCA at 86.6% followed by SpiceJet (78.7%), Vistara (74.5%), GoAir (74.2%) Air India (69.4%) and Jet (65.8%). The overall cancellation rate of scheduled domestic airlines during August was 0.83%. There were 599 passenger-related complaints.
IndiGo had a market share of 38%, followed by Jet Airways (18.3%), SpiceJet (14%), Air India (13.2%), GoAir (8%), AirAsia India (4.3%), Vistara (3.7%) and Trujet (0.5%).
International Air Transport Association (IATA) expects India to displace the UK as the third-largest aviation market by 2026.
Ten years after that, India’s air passenger traffic will grow to 442 million by 2035, an increase of 322 million passengers from the current numbers, it estimates.
According to IATA, the five fastest-growing markets in terms of additional passengers per year over the forecast period would be China, the US, India, Indonesia and Vietnam.
“China will displace the US as the world’s largest aviation market (defined by traffic to, from and within the country) around 2029. India will displace the UK for the third place in 2026, while Indonesia enters the top ten at the expense of Italy,” IATA had said in its forecast last year.
“Growth will also increasingly be driven within developing markets. Over the past decade the developing world’s share of total passenger traffic has risen from 24% to nearly 40%, and this trend is set to continue,” IATA said.