Airlines make hay in festive season with 34 lakh fliers

Airlines managed to attract over 34 lakh passengers till September riding on a series of discount sales throughout the year even as low-cost carrier IndiGo remained on top by cornering the highest market share.

The latest statistics released by Directorate-General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) also showed that there was an increase of over 10 lakh passengers in September this year compared to the same month last year.

Passengers carried by domestic airlines till September were 491.47 lakh compared to 456.95 lakh in corresponding period last year, a 7.55 per cent increase. In September alone, airlines flew 58.22 lakh passengers compared to 45.55 lakh last year. while 56.97 lakh passengers flew in August.

IndiGo, which had increased its market share to 32.8 per cent, carried the most passengers at 19.07 lakh passengers followed by SpiceJet, which flew 10.82 lakh passengers.

However, on seat occupancy, SpiceJet towered above all other airlines managing to fill 85.9 per cent seats, an increase from August's 82.5 per cent. IndiGo had 77.9 per cent seat occupancy, up from 74.8 per cent.

Air India also had an impressive increase in seat occupancy from 70.3 per cent in August to 76.7 per cent last month. Likewise, Jet Airways and its low-cost arm Jetlite also saw  an impressive increase in passenger load factor.

“The passenger load factor in the month of September has shown increasing trend compared to previous month due to ongoing festive season,” the DGCA said.

AirAsia only loser 

However, the seat occupancy figures were not music to AirAsia India which became the only airline to see a decrease. Though there was an increase in number of passengers as it started operations to Chandigarh and Jaipur, the seat occupancy has dipped from 73 per cent in August to 68.7 per cent last month.

On passenger complaints, the DGCA said 750 flier related complaints were received last month with Air India.

topping the list. Customer Service and baggage related problems were on the top of complaints. IndiGo had the highest on-time performance as 89.9 per cent of flights reaching destinations on time.