May Aviation Data: Domestic Air Passenger Traffic Slips Below 2% Amid Geopolitical Tensions
Passenger load factors of all airlines slipped in May, amid the spree of cancellations by several travellers due to the geopolitical tensions that erupted last month.
Domestic airlines recorded less than 2% growth in passenger footfall during the month of May, which was marked by the four-day military conflict between India and Pakistan.
The passengers carried by domestic airlines last month stood at 1.4 crore, marking an increase of only 1.89% as compared to 1.38 crore passengers in the same month last year, according to the data released by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation on Tuesday.
Operations at as many as 32 airports in frontier regions were impacted for around a week's period in May, as Indian and Pakistani militaries were locked in a brief conflict.
The disruption in flight services also affected the passenger load factor —the percentage of available seats on an aircraft that are occupied by passengers — of all airlines. IndiGo's PLF dropped to 85.1% from 86.9%, SpiceJet logged a decline to 84% from 86%, and Air India's PLF slipped to 80.2% from 83.3%.
Akasa Air's PLF for the period stood at 91.4%, the highest among its contemporaries.
The dominance of IndiGo, in terms of market share, remained intact. The budget carrier increased its market share marginally to 64.6% in May from 64.1% last month. In absolute terms, it carried 90.8 lakh passengers.
Air India saw a fall in its market share to 26.5% from 27.2%. The erstwhile national carrier carried 37.22 lakh passengers during the month.
Among other carriers, SpiceJet saw a fall in its market share to 2.4% from 2.6%, and Akasa Air raised its share to 5.3% from 5%.
The domestic airlines received around 958 passengers related complaints in May, with Alliance Air receiving the maximum complaints followed by Fly Big and Spice Jet.
In terms of on-time performance, Indigo surpassed other airlines with 84% accuracy, followed by Air India group at 79.7%, Akasa Air at 78.9%, Alliance Air at 53.5%, and SpiceJet at 50.1%, as per the data.
The cancellation rate of scheduled domestic airlines for the month of May stood at 2.51%. Among major carriers, Fly Big recorded a cancellation of 22.14%, followed by Indiaone Air at 10.76%.
