20.3.18

Domestic Air Traffic Up 24% in February


Indian airlines registered a more than 24% increase in passenger traffic in February compared with a year earlier. Indian carriers flew 10.7 million passengers in the past month, up from 8.6 million in February 2017, as per the DGCA.

All key scheduled carriers flew their planes with more than 80% seats full. SpiceJet maintained its pole position in terms of load factor at 96.3%, followed by IndiGo at 91.8% despite problems with its Airbus 320neo aircraft.

Vistara was a surprise third, flying its planes with 91.2% seats full, the highest ever for the airline that flies its planes in a three-class configuration: economy, premium economy and business.

In terms of operating flights on time, Jet Airways remained the worst performer for the fifth consecutive month. While Jet Airways operated 62.2% of its flights on time, SpiceJet topped the list operating 78% of its services on time. IndiGo was second at 74.8%.

SpiceJet said the February performance was the best ever for the airline in terms of both on-time operations and passenger load factor.

IndiGo remained the market leader, flying 39.9% of the industry passenger traffic. Jet Airways came in next with 16.8%, followed by national carrier Air India with 13.2%.

Travel industry insiders said the growth trend in the aviation space was set to continue in the coming months too.

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