Domestic airlines registered a 8.30 per cent growth in passengers carried in August, compared to the same month last year. The latest data by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) shows that the airlines flew 56.97 lakh passengers in August compared to 52.6 lakh during the same period last year. The DGCA attributes the increase in passengers flown in August this year to the start of the festival season.
IndiGo continued to be the market leader having flown 18.59 lakh passengers, and SpiceJet flew 11.09 lakh passengers taking second position, among the eight domestic airlines. Air India (9.24 lakh passengers) edged out Jet Airways (9.16 lakh) to make it to the third place.
However, if passengers flown by its low cost arm JetLite which carried 2.26 lakh passengers are also added to the passengers flown by Jet Airways then it will replace SpiceJet at second place. Jet Airways, however, gives the number of passengers flown by its low-cost arm separately to the DGCA. If one is to look at the passengers flown by all the domestic airlines in the calendar year, then Air India takes the second spot at 88.77 lakh with IndiGo being the leader having flown over 1.33 crore passengers with SpiceJet at 80.94 lakh passengers taking the third spot.