Indian carriers together flew 76.55 lakh passengers in January 2016 as compared to 62.45 lakh fliers in same period last year.
The domestic aviation market continued on a growth trajectory in the new year, with air passenger traffic rising over 22% in January even as the seat factor declined marginally during the period due to the end of tourist season.
Indian carriers together flew 76.55 lakh passengers in January 2016 as compared to 62.45 lakh fliers ferried by them during the same period in the previous year, logging 22.58% growth, according to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) data released on Thursday.
Budget carrier IndiGo maintained its leadership position carrying 27.26 lakh passengers, more than one-thirds of the total traffic pie, while another budget carrier SpiceJet continued seeing highest seat occupancy in its aircraft at 92.1% during the month.
While, Jet Airways and JetLite combined flew 21.4 lakh passengers with a market share of 21.4%, national carrier Air India transported 12.23 lakh passengers, cornering 16% of the total air passenger traffic in January 2016.
SpiceJet and GoAir also carried 10.11 lakh and 6.20 lakh passengers respectively during this period, according to the DGCA data.
On the other side, the number of passengers flown by the two startup carriers Vistar and AirAsia during January stood at 1.50 lakh and 1.75 lakh respectively, cornering 2% and 2.3% market share respectively.
The passenger load factor in the month of January 2016 has slightly decreased compared to previous month primarily due to the end of tourist season, the DGCA said.
"For the ninth consecutive month in a row, SpiceJet has once again recorded the highest passenger load factor of all airlines in India," the DGCA said.
"In addition, the cancellation rate for the airline at 0.5% was the lowest of all pan-India operators and the On-Time Performance (about 75) was amongst the best," SpiceJet said in a statement.
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