Domestic air passenger traffic dropped significantly in May due to the second COVID-19 wave that severely impacted the aviation sector. According to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) around 21.15 lakh domestic passengers travelled by air in May, which is 63 per cent lower than April when the sector had clocked 57.25 lakh passengers. The regulator said on Thursday that 78.22 lakh people travelled within the country by air in March.
IndiGo had the lions' share among all airlines. It carried 11.69 lakh passengers in May, accounting for 55.3 per cent of the domestic market. SpiceJet flew 1.99 lakh passengers that translates to 9.4 per cent share of the market.
Air India, GO FIRST (previously GoAir), Vistara and AirAsia India carried 4.29 lakh, 1.38 lakh, 97,000 and 64,000 passengers respectively.
The DGCA stated that occupancy rate of the six major Indian airlines was between 39.3 per cent and 64 per cent in May.
SpiceJet had the most occupancy at 64 per cent, followed by GO FIRST at 63.3 per cent, IndiGo at 51.2 per cent, AirAsia India at 44.4 per cent, Vistara at 40.9 per cent, and Air India at 39.3 per cent.
In May, IndiGo had the best on-time performance of 98.7 per cent at four metro airports -- Bengaluru, Delhi, Hyderabad and Mumbai, followed by Vistara and AirAsia India with 98.1 per cent and 97.4 per cent on-time performance.
As wave after wave continues to disrupt the sector, airlines have gone for cost-reducing measures including pay cuts, leave without pay and layoffs. Last year domestic passenger flights were banned for two months due to the pandemic.