Domestic airlines carried 53.18 lakh passengers this April, registering an increase of 4.75 per cent over the 50.77 lakh passengers flown in April 2013.
The latest data released by the Directorate General Civil Aviation (DGCA) show that low-cost airline IndiGo continued to be the market leader at 31.6 per cent, followed by Air India at 18.3 per cent, SpiceJet (17.9 per cent) and Jet Airways (17.5 per cent).
Jet’s share would increase if passengers flown its low-cost arm JetLite, at 4.3 per cent of the market, are added as well.
Air Costa reported the highest passenger load factor at 77.8 per cent during the month followed by IndiGo (76.9 per cent) and GoAir (76.1 per cent). JetLite reported a 76 per cent passenger load factor while SpiceJet and Air India both reported a 73.3 per cent passenger load factor. Jet Airways reported a passenger load factor of 70.9 per cent.
Passenger load factor measures the capacity utilisation of an airline and is generally used to assess how a transport provider fill seats and generates fare revenues.
The increase in passenger load factors during April was mainly because of the start of the tourist season.