Domestic air passenger traffic up 4.7% in Jan-July, says DGCA

Aviation market

♦ Airline cancellations stood at 1.9% in July, with 1,097 passenger complaints

♦ SpiceJet and Akasa Air secured 4.5% and 4.6% market share, respectively

♦ Despite growth, concerns remain over high debt levels and rising fuel costs

New Delhi: India's domestic air passenger traffic grew 4.7 per cent (year-on-year) to over 9.23 crore in the January-July period, from more than 8.81 crore during the corresponding period of the previous year, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) data showed on Monday.

The domestic air passenger traffic growth was 7.33 per cent when compared on a monthly basis (1.21 crore air travellers in July 2023 against 1.3 crore in July 2024).

During the seven-month reporting period, budget carrier IndiGo carried more than 5.61 crore passengers, clocking a massive market share of 60.8 per cent, followed by Tata Group-run Air India flying over 1.25 crore passengers with 13.6 per cent share and Vistara registering a market share of 9.6 per cent with 89 lakh air passengers at the third position.

AIX Connect (erstwhile AirAsia India), which is also a part of the Tata Group, ferried 49.89 lakh passengers in the seven months this year, clocking a market share of 5.4 per cent.

SpiceJet flew 41.78 lakh passengers at 4.5 per cent market share while Akasa Air ferried 42.38 lakh passengers at 4.6 per cent market share, the aviation regulator's data showed.

The overall cancellation rate of scheduled domestic airlines for the month of July has been 1.90 per cent. During July, a total of 1,097 passenger-related complaints had been received by the scheduled domestic airlines. The number of complaints per 10,000 passengers carried for the month of July 2024 has been around 0.84, as per the DGCA data.

“The major reasons for complaints are flight problem related. Airlines received a total of 1,097 complaints, out of which 1,095 have been addressed,” said the aviation regulator.

In June, domestic air passenger traffic grew 5.76 per cent to 1.32 crore from 1.24 crore in the same month last year.