After more than 4 years, India's air passenger traffic falls in April

Domestic air traffic in April this year consisted 10.99 million passengers as compared to 11.51 million passengers in the same month last year, signifying a fall of around 4.5 per cent,

Illustration: Uttam Ghosh/Rediff.com

Breaking a growth streak of over 55 months, domestic air passenger traffic fell by around 4.5 per cent in April this year, according to data released by Indian aviation regulator DGCA on Wednesday.

Domestic air traffic in April this year consisted 10.99 million passengers as compared to 11.51 million passengers in the same month last year, signifying a fall of around 4.5 per cent, as per the data.

The monthly domestic air passenger traffic has only seen growth for more than 55 previous months, according the DGCA data available on its website.

Suspension of operations by Jet Airways on April 17, 2019, due to lack of funds is one of the primary reasons why domestic air traffic saw a fall in last month.

According to the DGCA data, the share of domestic passenger traffic flown by Jet Airways was just 0.8 per cent in April 2019, as compared 14.7 per cent in the same month last year.

In February and March this year, the share of Jet Airways in domestic air passenger traffic was 10 per cent and 4.6 per cent, respectively.

Low-cost carrier IndiGo solidified its position as the largest airline in India as it has acquired 49.9 per cent share in the domestic air passenger traffic in April this year, as per the DGCA data.

In absolute numbers, the airline flew 5.48 million passengers in April this year.

In the January to March period of 2019, the monthly share of IndiGo in domestic air passenger market has gradually increased from 42.5 per cent to 43.4 per cent to 46.9 per cent, respectively.

SpiceJet and Air India flew 1.52 million and 1.44 million passengers, respectively, in April this year.

These two airlines had flown 1.51 million passengers and 1.58 million passengers, respectively, in March this year.

"During April 2019, a total of 1,218 passenger-related complaints had been received by the scheduled domestic airlines.

“The number of complaints per 10,000 passengers carried for the month of April 2019 has been around 1.11," the DGCA said on Wednesday.

Jet Airways had 52.9 complaints per 10,000 passengers in the month of April while Air India was on number two position with 1.6 complaints per 10,000 passengers, as per the DGCA data.

The aviation regulator said that 35.5 per cent of the total complaints received by domestic airlines in April were related to refund issues.

According to the DGCA data, passenger load factor in April for SpiceJet, GoAir, IndiGo and Vistara stood at 93.7 per cent, 90.8 per cent, 87.8 per cent and 84.6 per cent, respectively.

Passenger load factor for a single flight can be calculated by dividing the number of passengers to the number of available seats.