IndiGo carried maximum number of passengers in Aug

No-frill airline IndiGo continued its spree of carrying the maximum number of passengers besides having the largest market share in August, as Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh, concerned over Air India's performance, asked the national carrier to prepare a plan to enhance its share.

There was a minor increase of 0.5 per cent in the total number of passengers carried in January-August this year compared with the period last year, official data showed.

IndiGo carried 12.05 lakh passengers last month, followed by Jet Airways-JetLite combined flying 11.01 lakh, SpiceJet 807,000, Air India 794,000 and GoAir 324,000.

The worst performer was cash-strapped Kingfisher Airlines which carried only 138,000 passengers in August, while the new scheduled carrier Air Mantra of Religare, which is operating only two small 17-seater aircraft since July 23, flew a few hundred air travellers to Chandigarh and Amritsar.

In terms of market share, IndiGo was again on top with 27.6 per cent, followed by Jet-JetLite combine with 25.2 per cent, SpiceJet with 18.5 per cent, Air India 18.2 per cent, GoAir with 7.4 per cent and Kingfisher at the end of the list with 3.2 per cent.

Concerned over the national carrier's performance, the Minister asked Air India to submit to him in a week's time a plan to enhance its share in the domestic passenger market.

The plan should include month-wise targets of market share along with corresponding strategy to achieve these targets over the next one year, an official spokesman said.

Noting that Air India had maintained the 18.2 per cent level since July, Singh asked Air India to work out innovative and customer-focused strategies to achieve optimum utilisation of all planes.

Photograph: Vivek Prakash/Reuters