Source: Financial Express, 20 February 2023
Domestic air passenger traffic nearly doubled to 12.5 million in January compared to 6.4 million recorded a year ago, according to official data released on Monday. In January, IndiGo saw its domestic market share decline for the fifth consecutive month at 54.6%. It carried 6.85 million passengers last month. In August last year, the carrier had a market share of 59.72%.
As per the data from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), the regulator received more complaints from the passengers of various airlines on account of flight problems, baggage issues and staff behaviour compared to December. Air India and Vistara carried 1.15 million and 1.11 million passengers, respectively, in January, with a market share of 9.2% and 8.8%, respectively.
Budget carriers Go First and AirAsia India transported a total of 1.05 million and 930,000 passengers, respectively. The number of domestic passengers flown by low-cost airline SpiceJet stood at 914,000 according to DGCA. The total number of domestic passengers flown by the Tata Group airlines — Air India, Vistara and AirAsia India — together stood at 3.23 million, accounting for around 26% of the total domestic market in January 2023.
Air India and AirAsia India are fully owned by the Tata Group while Vistara is 51% owned by the conglomerate and the rest is with Singapore Airlines. As part of the group’s plans to consolidate its aviation business, Vistara is being merged with Air India and budget carrier AirAsia India with Air India’s international low-cost arm — Air India Express
.Also, all seven domestic airlines, including Akasa Air, saw lower passenger load factor (PLF) sequentially in January. IndiGo, however, maintained its top position in on-time performance in January with 84.6% on an average of its flights from four key metro airports — Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad — departing and arriving at their scheduled time.