Domestic carriers reported a mild uptick in volume growth last month, flying 95.68 lakh (9.56 million) passengers, 19.98 percent more than 79.75 lakh (7.97 million) flown in June last year, the BusinessLine reported, citing data released by the civil aviation regulator, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, on Wednesday.
The rate of growth is higher than May when the YoY increase came in at 17.3 percent, though in absolute terms, the number of passengers carried was far higher at 101.74 lakh (10.17 million).
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In terms of market share, low-cost carrier IndiGo retained its position as the largest in terms of passengers carried, having flown 38.26 lakh passengers, or 40 percent of the total volume, the business daily said.
Jet Airways maintained its position as the second-largest with a market share of 15.2 percent, followed by Air India at 13.1 percent and SpiceJet at 13.3 percent.
In absolute terms, Jet Airways carried 14.58 lakh passengers, SpiceJet 12.73 lakh and Air India 12.49 lakh passengers, the BusinessLine reported.
Go Air carried 8.05 lakh passengers, while Tata Group ventures Vistara and AirAsia India flew 3.44 lakh and 3.51 lakh passengers, according to the business daily.
Passenger load factor (PLF), which measures how many of the total seats on offer by each airline were filled, was the highest for SpiceJet at 94.5 percent, while IndiGo and Go Air had PLFs of 87.8 percent and 89.4 percent, respectively, according to the BusinessLine.
IndiGo-parent Interglobe Aviation, Jet Airways and SpiceJet are listed on stock exchanges while the rest are not. National carrier Air India is actively being pursued by the government for stake sale, though the contours are yet to be finalised.
For the financial year 2016-17, Air India reported net loss of Rs 3,643 crore and operating profit of Rs 300 crore while revenues rose 8 percent YoY to Rs 22,146 crore, from Rs 20,524 crore in the preceding financial year, according to news agency PTI.
The DGCA data also showed that the aviation companies paid over Rs 2 crore to around 99,500 passengers who were affected by cancellations, delays or denied boarding during the month (June), according to the BusinessLine.
