Indian aviation companies witnessed yet another month of double-digit growth in domestic passenger traffic in April. The carriers flew 79.32 lakh (7.93 million) million passengers, 21 percent more than 65.59 lakh (6.55 million) passengers they carried in April 2015, according to Indian government data.
IndiGo, Air India, SpiceJet gain market share; Jet Airways loses
IndiGo improved its market share to a fourth-month high of 38.7 in April (on a sequential basis) and maintained its position as the largest carrier by passenger volumes, statistics released by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) showed.
State-run Air India improved its share to 15.1 percent in April from 14.7 percent in March, while budget carrier SpiceJet saw its share go up marginally to 12.9 percent from 12.8 percent in the preceding month.
Jet Airways posted a decline to 15.9 percent in April from 17.6 percent in March, while Go Air witnessed a growth to 8.5 percent from 8.3 percent in the previous month.
Air Costa and Vistara saw a modest improvement while AirAsia India's share declined in April.
Air India narrows the gap with Jet Airways
Air India's market share in March was 14.7 percent, far lower than 17.6 percent of Jet Airways. In April, the respective market share of the two carriers stood at 15.1 percent and 15.9 percent.
In absolute terms, IndiGo carried 30.67 lakh (3.06 million) passengers in April, Jet Airways 12.62 lakh, Air India 11.98 lakh and SpiceJet 10.21 lakh passengers, according to the DGCA data.
Passenger load factor highest for SpiceJet
SpiceJet recorded a passenger load factor (PLF) of 93.2 percent, followed by Go Air's 87.8 percent and 85.8 percent of IndiGo. Air India improved its PLF to 78.9 percent from 75.7 percent in March.
Also read: SpiceJet shares nosedive despite posting record net profit for March quarter
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Four-month data
In the first four months of calendar year 2016, carriers flew 309.35 lakh (30.93 million) passengers, a growth of 23 percent over 251.05 lakh (25.1 million) in the corresponding period last calendar year.
In March and February this year, Indian carriers flew 7.87 million and 7.47 million passengers, respectively.
