Indigo & Tata continue to dominate Indian skies

Bengaluru, 19 September: Most airlines across India have witnessed a fall in the Plant Load Factor (PLF) in August 2024 on the back of soft air traffic.

While SpiceJet recorded a sharp monthly dip of 9.30 per cent, resulting into its August PLF coming in at 81 per cent, traffic for Indigo, Air India, and AIX Connect fell by 2.3 per cent, 2.10%, and 1.30% MoM (month on month) to 82.3 per cent, 80.1 per cent, and 84.4 per cent, respectively.

During last month, Vistara topped the PLF chart at 88.7 per cent, followed by Akasa Air at 85.5 per cent.

“India’s domestic passenger air traffic rose 6 per cent over previous year to 13.1 million in August 24, whereas daily trends for September indicate a moderate growth of around 4 per cent,” a research report by Emkay said.

“Indigo continues to dominate the domestic space, boosting its market share by 40 bps MoM to 62.4 per cent in August, 2024. Tata group’s market share also saw an uptick, of 60 bps MoM to 29.4 per cent, driven by Air India and Vistara gaining 40 bps and 30 bps MoM, respectively,” it added.

Now, Indigo and Tata group dominate the Indian skies with around 92 per cent of the total market share.

“SpiceJet is hitting new lows with its market share shrinking by 80 bps MoM to 2.3 per cent, largely due to financial woes and increased grounding,” the report said.

Meanwhile, the reduction in crude oil prices is likely to support the profitability of airlines in the current quarter. Domestic ATF prices declined 5 per cent MoM (month on month) to Rs 93.5 per litre (in Delhi) in September.