Domestic air traffic declined by 1.6 per cent to 12.9 million on a sequential basis in July, with the end of the peak travel season. Traffic, however, grew 7.3 per cent on a year-on-year basis in July.

The average passenger load factor fell to 86.5 per cent in July compared to over 88 per cent in June.

IndiGo increased its market share from 60.8 per cent to 62 per cent on a sequential basis, as it carried over eight million passengers in July. Vistara also increased its market share from 9.7 per cent to 10 per cent on a sequential basis.

IndiGo was also the most impacted airline due to weather and global IT outage issues on July 19 that led to a disruption of its schedule. Nearly 2.89 lakh IndiGo passengers were impacted due to cancellations and delays in July. The airline had to arrange alternate flights, refunds and refreshments for impacted passengers.

In fact, the on-time performance of all airlines dipped in July in comparison to the previous months. While Air India Express had 70 per cent of its flights on time, only a third of SpiceJet's flights left on schedule. SpiceJet also saw a further erosion in its market share. In July, it reported a market share of 3.1 per cent, compared to 3.8 per cent in June. SpiceJet, however, reported the highest seat occupancy with a load factor of 90.3 per cent.

The first six months of 2024 (January-June) witnessed the highest ever air traffic as airlines flew 79.3 million passengers in that period. Traffic flown in the first six months of 2024 was higher than in 2019, when airlines carried 70.6 million passengers.

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