Low-cost carrier Akasa grabbed a bigger chunk of the Indian skies from IndiGo, Vistara and SpiceJet in January, while Tata-owned Air India’s share remained the same as the previous month, according to the latest monthly industry report released by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Monday.
Indian carriers together posted a 95.72 per cent growth in air traffic, with 125.42 lakh passengers carried in January, compared to 64.08 lakh passengers in the same month last year. However, on a month-on-month basis, air traffic tumbled by nearly 1.52 per cent, the data revealed.
IndiGo’s market share declined in January 2023 to 54.9 per cent from 54.6 per cent in December 2022, though it comfortably retained its top spot. Vistara’s market share came down to 8.8 per cent in January from 9.2 per cent in December. SpiceJet, too, lost its market share by 0.3 per cent.
The newest kid on the block, Akasa, managed to grab one per cent more of the Indian aviation market in January, taking its market share to 2.8 per cent from 1.8 per cent in December. Air India’s market share was at 9.2 per cent in January this year, the same as in December 2022..
The passenger load factor (PLF) of all airlines witnessed a decline on a month-on-month basis. The average PLF, or occupancy, however, remained on the higher side in the range of 80 to 90 per cent.
Akasa Air also saw a dip in its PLF to 82.8 per cent in the month under review as against 83.8 per cent in December last year. SpiceJet’s PLF was 91 per cent, while Indigo’s was at 82 per cent. Air India and Go First had 87.5 per cent and 90.9 per cent of occupancy, respectively.