Airline industry grows 23% in first 8 months of 2016

The growth story of India’s civil aviation sector continues. With the latest statistics showing 23.14% growth in the first eight months of 2016 in comparison to the same period last year.

Indian domestic carriers flew 644.68 lakh passengers in January-August period this year, against 523.55 lakh during the corresponding period in 2015.

In August alone, according to latest report by Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), 83.81 lakh people flew in local airlines as against 67.60 lakh in same month last year registering a 23.98% growth.

The seat occupancy in all the airlines except SpiceJet showed a decline in August, compared with July. SpiceJet had seat occupancy of 93.2% as against 92% while Jet Airways,  GoAir, IndiGo and AirAsia India had passenger load factor over 80%.

Air India settled at 77.7% compared to 80.3% in July while Vistara settled at 69.2% as against 75.2%. Air Carnival had a seat occupancy of 65.57%. It also had the highest rate of cancellation at 20%, which was followed by TruJet 13.06% and Air Costa 6.85%.

IndiGo consolidated the position in the market with 39.9% share, while Air India had 14.6% marker share. Jet Airways and JetLite had a combined share of 19.2%, and SpiceJet 12.6%. Vistara did not cancel a single service in August.

During August, 885 passenger-related complaints had been received by domestic airlines. The number of complaints per 10,000 passengers carried for the month of August 2016 has been 0.9. Here also, Air Carnival topped the list with 2.5, followed by Air India 2.4.

 Analysing the figures, travel portal Yatra.com’s President Sharad Dhall said domestic airfares have been at their lowest in 2016 compared with the last couple of years due to low oil prices and an increase in the capacity, which has “driven growth in the market”.

 “Airlines announced sales as well during this traditionally lean travel month, resulting in a further increase in the passenger numbers. We are confident that this trend of strong growth in the domestic aviation market is likely to continue in the short to medium term,” he said.