New Delhi: India's domestic air traffic grew by a healthy 18.66 per cent to 67.60 lakh passengers in August this year as against the year-ago period, even as airlines had less number of seats filled in their planes in the reporting month compared to July. Indian airlines together carried 67.60 lakh passengers in August 2015 as against 56.97 lakh flown by them in the same period last year, the latest data released by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) showed.
The passenger load factor in August has, however, shown a declining trend compared to previous month, primarily due to end of tourist season, DGCA said. Private budget carrier IndiGo continues its domination in the domestic market, having flown over one-thirds (23.85 lakh passengers) of the total traffic during the period while another budget carrier, SpiceJet, clocked the highest seat factor or occupancy rate at 92.1 per cent.
Among other carriers, full service airline Jet Airways along with its subsidiary JetLite -- which is in the process of getting merged with the parent company -- ferried 15.9 lakh passengers. SpiceJet and GoAir flew 8.30 lakh and 5.48 lakh passengers, respectively. National carrier Air India carried 11.25 lakh passengers in August 2015, around two lakh more than last year.
In terms of the market share, while Jet and JetLite together cornered 22.8 per cent of the total traffic after IndiGo's 35.3 per cent, SpiceJet and GoAir carried 12.3 per cent and 8.1 per cent of the total passenger traffic. Air India's markets share during the month stood at 16.6 per cent with its seat factor at 79.3 per cent.
Significantly, Jet Airways had the highest occupancy in its flights, after SpiceJet, as it clocked 80.6 per cent seat factor in August.
