Domestic airlines flew 66.66 lakh passengers in September this year, registering a growth of over 14.70 per cent over the 58.19 lakh passengers carried during the same period in the previous year, the latest data released by the Directorate-General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) showed.
IndiGo, the Delhi-based low-cost airline maintained its dominant position carrying 24.30 lakh passengers in September this year followed by Jet Airways (12.78 lakh) with Air India (Domestic) taking the third position having flown 10.59 lakh passengers, according to the data. The number of passengers flown by Jet Airways will increase if the 1.85 lakh passengers flown by its subsidiary JetLite are added to the number of passengers carried by Jet Airways. In September this year, SpiceJet flew 8.19 lakh passengers followed by GoAir (5.79 lakh), AirAsia (1.25 lakh), Vistara (0.98 lakh) and Air Costa (0.59 lakh).
SpiceJet, another low-cost airline, reported the highest passenger load factor of 93 per cent followed by GoAir (79.8 per cent), IndiGo (79.4 per cent), Truejet (79 per cent) and AirCosta (78.9 per cent). The passenger load factor shows how many of the total seats on offer by each airline get filled.
In September, the domestic airline industry paid ₹45.91 lakh towards compensation and facilities to over 30,000 passengers affected by flight delays while another ₹37.05 lakh was paid to over 4,800 passengers whose flights were cancelled. The domestic airlines also paid ₹14.56 lakh as compensation to over 450 passengers who were denied boarding.