Oct. sees 13% rise in domestic air travel

Industr

Oct. sees 13% rise in domestic air travel

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As many as 118.45 lakh people travelled across India last month against 104.51 lakh in last October

The month of October 2018 witnessed a 13.34% growth in domestic air passengers compared to the same month last year.

According to data published by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), 118.45 lakh air passengers travelled during October as against 104.51 lakh passengers in October 2017.

In the January-October period, domestic airlines carried 1,146.37 lakh passengers as compared to 954.45 lakh passengers in the same period last year, an increase of 20.11%.

Load factor

While Air India, Jet Airways, Jet Lite, SpiceJet, Go Air, Vistara, and Air Deccan reported lower load factor compared to the same period last year, IndiGo, Air Asia India and TruJet reported a higher load factor.

In October, Air Odisha and Zoom Air did not operate a single flight. Air Deccan had cancelled 52.7% of its flights. Air India had cancelled 4.1% of its flights. Go Air did not cancel a single flight in October.

Jet Lite, Jet Airways, IndiGo and Vistara had the least number of cancellations.

As per DGCA data, Air Deccan received the maximum number of passenger complaints.

While 98.5% of its passengers had some complaint, this ratio was 1.4% for Air India. The main complaints pertained to baggage and flight-related problems.

Go Air led the on-time performance in October at 90.5%, followed by Vistara at 88.5%. Air Deccan was the last with on-time performance of 74.7%.

In October, all domestic airlines together denied boarding to 1,846 passengers who received a compensation of ₹97.49 lakh.

As many as 12,556 passengers were affected by flight cancellations and received compensation totalling ₹53.33 lakh.

As many as 90,397 passengers were impacted by flight delays and airlines spent ₹125.70 lakh on facilitation expenses.

Robust growth

“The monthly growth of 13.34% was tempered due to factors such as the delayed festival season this year and an increase in fares of over 15% compared to September. However, with oil cooling off, prices are likely to be stable ensuring that the growth momentum is maintained. Overall, the growth till date since January 2018 continues at a robust 20.11%.

With Christmas and New Year around the corner, we expect an increase in passenger traffic through to the end of the year,” Sharat Dhall, COO (B2C), Yatra.com said.