Domestic carriers clock 23% growth

Drop in ATF price helps sector in 2016

 The skies were clearer for civil aviation in 2016, with domestic airlines registering a 23.18% growth in number of fliers they carried, compared with 2015.

Low airfares aided by drop in prices of jet fuel and growing disposable income of people are said to be the main reasons behind the growth in number of fliers, while the number of fliers are bound to cross the 10-crore mark this year.

Competition among carriers, adding new schedules to existing destinations, as well as opening up of some regional routes are also among the reasons for the spike in number of fliers.

Latest statistics released by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) showed that a dozen carriers, both full-service and low-cost, flew 187.97 lakh more passengers last year, compared with 2015. There were 998.88 lakh passengers who boarded planes last year, against 810.91 lakh in 2015.

A comparison with the figures from the previous years would show the aviation sector’s glowing growth. While the growth rate was 23.18% in 2016, the increase was 20.34% in 2015, which witnessed an increase of 137.08 lakh fliers compared with 2014.

In December alone, there was an increase of 23.91% passengers — from 77.09 lakh in December 2015, to 95.52 lakh last month. In December 2014, the figure was 64.90 lakh.

IndiGo continues to rule

IndiGo remained the market leader for another year, garnering 39.3% of the market share by ferrying 392.65 lakh. In 2015, IndiGo carried 297.43 lakh people and had a market share of 36.7%.

Since September last year, IndiGo has been reporting a market share of over 40% every month.

Jet Airways, along with its subsidiary JetLite, cornered a market share of 19%, carrying 189.93 lakh passengers. While its market share dipped from 22.5%, the number of passengers it carried grew.

National carrier Air India too dropped 1.8% to settle at 14.6% with 146.30 lakh passengers. SpiceJet, which was in the woods in 2014, showed it is on a sound footing by improving its market share from 11.6% in 2015, to 12.7% last year, by carrying 126.74 lakh passengers.

Vistara managed a 2.5% market share with 25.18 lakh passengers, up from 1.3% market share carrying 10.66 lakh passengers in 2015. AirAsia India had 2.4% market share while Air Costa had 0.7%, Trujet 0.4% and Air Pegasus 0.1%.