Presenting a different side of the airline industry, for the second time in a year, all the domestic airlines have carried over 54 lakh passengers in October. Low-cost airline SpiceJet has emerged as the biggest gainer in terms of the market share, while Kingfisher lost maximum in comparison to September.
According to the data complied by the aviation regulator, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), seven domestic airlines (including JetLite) carried over 8.14 lakh passenger more in October in comparison to September. However, with cancellation of flights by Kingfisher, the experts feel that growth may slow down in November and December.
Interestingly, all the three full service carrier, Air India, Jet Airways (including JetLite) and Kingfisher have shaded its market share while barring Indigo, the two low-cost carriers SpiceJet and GoAir have gained handsomely. There is no change for Indigo. Despite all these, Jet and JetLite combined have managed to hold the top rank in total market share, while Indigo retained the second position.
A senior official in the DGCA said that with the introduction of regional connectivity with Q400 type of plane, SpiceJet has been able to increase its market share more than expected. Seat factor (seats filled in comparison to availability) for Chennai headquartered airline increased significantly to 78 per cent.
IndiGo still leads in terms of seat factor with over 84 per cent, while Kingfisher is second with nearly 80 per cent. The market leader Jet (excluding JetLite) occupied bottom place in this list with approximately 71 per cent seat factor.
In terms of cancellation, Air India has maximum with 3 per cent, while GoAir has least with 0.2 per cent. The overall cancellation rate for the month of October has been 1.4 per cent. But in terms of passenger complaints GoAir tops the list with 4.5 complaints per 10,000 passengers, while Air India has the least with 1.1 complaints per 10,000 passengers.
The overall on-time performance (OTP) of domestic airlines recorded as 89.5 per cent. It means nearly 90 per cent flights took off within 15 minutes of the scheduled time of departure. Here again, GoAir had the best record 94.3 per cent, while Air India came at last with 79.9 per cent.