Indian aviation market continues double digit growth; airlines fly 20% more passengers in October

NEW DELHI: The Indian aviation market continued its double digit growth in passenger numbers during the month of October on the back of lower fares driven by lower fuel prices. Domestic airlines in the country flew about 19.96% more passengers during the month of October this year as compared to the same month last year.

While IndiGo maintained its pole position in the market by flying about 36.8% of the total passengers flown during the month, followed by the Jet Group ( Jet Airways and JetLite) that flew 21.2% of the total passengers during the month.

The national carrier Air India flew 15.5% of the total passengers followed by SpiceJet that flew 12.8% of the total passenger flown.

AirAsia and Vistara registered increase in their respective market shares at 2.1% and 1.7%, respectively.

During the month, SpiceJet continued its lead over others in terms of load factors, number of seats filled per flight. SpiceJet flew its planes with 92.1% of its seats occupied followed by IndiGo at 82.4% and GoAir at 81.2%.

In terms of On-time Performance during the month, Tata Group promoted Vistara led the pack by flying about 93.7% of its flight on time followed by market leader IndiGo that flew 89.6% of its flights on time.

During the month, Air India could fly only 75% of its flights on time that was the lowest in the Industry. The airline hopes to improve its on-time performance in the coming months as the airline has now 60 out 66 Airbus 320 family fleet available with it. During the month of October, the airline had about 54 out of 66 flights available for operations.