Domestic airlines flew 23.41% more passengers in the first two months of this year compared with the same period last year, latest official reports said.
According to the report of Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) released recently, airlines carried 151.31 lakh passengers this year till February as against 122.61 lakh during the corresponding period last year. In February alone, 74.76 lakh people flew to their destinations compared to last year’s 60.16 lakh. This is a growth of 24.27%.
Though there was an increase in the number of passengers, the figures showed that the seat occupancy slightly decreased in February compared to January primarily due to the end of tourist season.
SpiceJet continued to fill seats on a higher margin compared to its rivals. It managed a seat occupancy of 92.1%, down from January's 92.3%, while market leader IndiGo had 84.7% seat occupancy as against January’s 86%.
Air India was among the only four airlines that improved its seat occupancy in February with 81.7% seats filled compared to 79.9% in January. Vistara (74.8%), Jetlite (82.5%) and Trujet (83.4%) also improved its seat occupancy.
Passengers complaints
During February, 759 passenger-related complaints had been received by the airlines. The number of complaints per 10,000 passengers carried was 1.
The overall cancellation rate of domestic airlines in February was 0.7% with Air Costa topping the list with 19.95%. Air Pegasus had 15.84% cancellations while others had very less cancellations.
According to the report, 5,143 passengers were affected due to cancellations and airlines shelled out Rs. 29.38 lakh for compensation and providing facilities for them. Another 710 were denied boarding for various reasons and on this count, the compensation paid was Rs 22.81 lakh.
Delays cost airlines Rs 30.31 lakh on account of compensation and providing facilities for 57,979 affected passengers.
