Domestic airlines registered a 22.45 per cent growth in the number of passengers carried in November 2016 at 89.66 lakh as compared to 73.22 lakhs flown during the same period previously.
For 11 successive months in this calendar year, IndiGo retained the number one position having carried 37.73 lakh passengers from among the 89.66 lakh passengers flown by all the airlines collectively in November this year, the latest data released by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) shows.
Jet Airways emerged as the next favoured airlines among domestic flyers having carried 13.36 lakh passengers in November followed by Air India (11.57 lakh), SpiceJet (11.48 lakh), GoAir (7.20 lakh), Vistara (2.60 lakh) and Air Asia (2.51 lakh).
SpiceJet reported the highest passenger load factor of 92.5 per cent among the domestic carriers followed by IndiGo (88 per cent), GoAir (87.3 per cent), AirAsia India (86.9 per cent) and Jet Airways (80.4 per cent). Passenger load factor shows how many of the total seats on offer by each airline are getting filled.
During November this year the domestic airlines paid over ₹2.32 crore as compensation to over 1.10 lakh passengers affected by cancellations and flight delays among others reasons. Over 83,000 passengers affected by delays were collectively paid ₹ 77.70 lakhs towards compensation and providing facilities.
Indian law stipulates that airlines pay compensation starting from ₹2,000 going up to ₹4,000 for flights which are delayed or cancelled.
The law also stipulates that a compensation of ₹2,000 be paid for flights having a block time of one-hour while the compensation is ₹4,000 for flights having a block time of two hours or more. Block time is determined from the time between the first movement of an aircraft from its parking position at the departure airport in order to manoeuvre to the runway for takeoff until the wheels are standing still again at the destination airport and all engines are shut down.
The compensation is only paid if the cost of the ticket is higher than the compensation amount.