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Monday, 01 October, 2018, 16 : 43 PM [IST]
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India’s Domestic Air Passenger Traffic rises 17% in August
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According to the DGCA, 1.13
crore passengers w`ere ferried
by domestic airlines during
August 2018, which is up from
96.90 lakh reported during the
corresponding month of 2017.
TravelBiz Monitor presents
highlights.
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The demand for air
travel continues to
be high, with airlines
reporting a 17.1%
year-on-year jump in
domestic passenger
traffic in August.
According to the Directorate
General of Civil Aviation (DGCA),
airlines carried 11.35 million
passengers last month as fares
remain subdued compared with
year-ago period.
Indian airlines had flown nearly
9.69 million passengers in August
2017 at a 15.6% Y-o-Y growth.
The average ticket prices on key
metro routes like Delhi-Mumbai,
Mumbai-Bengaluru, Delhi-Chennai
were down by up to 10% Y-o-Y
during August 2018. Demand is
high because airlines have so far not
raised fares though the fuel cost has
risen by 35% Y-o-Y.
Carriers have been adding
new routes in their network,
thereby creating more capacity,
with demand remaining high.
However, the passenger load
factor (PLF) for individual airlines
was down between 1% and 11%
Y-o-Y, highlighting faster capacity
expansion than the passenger
traffic. Air India was the only one
to report an increase in PLF – up
8% Y-o-Y due to better route
management.
The top five airlines — IndiGo,
Jet Airways, Air India, SpiceJet
and GoAir — flew with load factors
between 80.6% and 93.6%.
SpiceJet continued to remain
in pole position among all key
scheduled carriers at 93.6%, but
down 1% Y-o-Y. GoAir recorded a
PLF of 84.6%, followed by market
leader IndiGo (82.8%) and Jet
Airways (80.6%) – all witnessing
a dip of around 1% Y-o-Y. Tata
Sons joint ventures – Air Asia and
Vistara – recorded occupancy of
76.2% and 81.5%, down 11% and
2%, respectively.
“Our analysis says August fares
were down up to 5% year-on-year.
Airlines have lost the ability to
price tickets higher. Things are
likely to improve from the festival
season onwards. The DGCA data
suggest that capacity has gone up
faster than the passenger traffic
which is evident from the marginal
dip in the load factors,” Balu
Ramachandran, head – air and
distribution, Cleartrip, said.
Experts also say inundation of
the Kochi international airport
did not have a major impact on
the domestic passenger growth.
The airport remained closed
between August 15 and 28 due
to unprecedented floods in the
southern state. Airlines had used
nearby Thiruvananthapuram
and Kozhikode airports to serve
passengers.
The market share of scheduled
carriers remained similar, with
IndiGo leading with 41.9%. It
carried 4.75 million passengers
in August. Jet flew 1.72 million,
having a 15.2% market share,
while Air India had a market
share of 12.7% with 1.44 million
travellers. SpiceJet was fourth with
1.4 million passengers and a 12.4%
market share. Wadia Groupowned
GoAir saw 1.01 million
customer bookings with an 8.9%
market share.
Air Asia served 0.53 million
domestic passengers, settling at a
4.7% market share, while Vistara
bagged 3.7% market share with
0.42 million passengers during last
month.
The industry expects the growth
momentum to continue in the
upcoming festive season.
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