‘Indigo’ continues to rule as India’s domestic air traffic up by 18.8% to 7.04 million passengers in October 2015

Source: DGCA

Indian aviation sector is experiencing robust growth driven by lower airfares due to decline in fuel prices, rising income level and improved air connectivity. During January-October 2015, total number of air passengers carried by airlines increased to 66.1 million from 55.1 million a year ago. While for the month of October 2015, passenger traffic grew by 18.8% to touch 7.04 million. Air passenger traffic growth during the month of October was mainly attributed to festival and peak tourist season in India.

India’s largest Low Cost Airline (LCC), Indigo continues to dominate with 36.8% market share. Indigo carried 2.59 million passengers during October 2015. While Jet Airways (Jet +Jet Lite) 1.50 million passenger to capture 21.2% share. State owned carrier Air India is at third place with 15.5% share carrying 1.09 million air travelers. Top 5 airlines accounts for 94.7% of total market share in Indian aviation sector.

In terms of Passenger Load Factor (PLF), another LCC SpiceJet leads with 92.1% followed by Indigo (82.4%), GoAir (81.2%). Most of the airlines experienced increased PLF driven by passenger growth due to tourist season.

On Time Performance (OTP) is one of important factor for passengers deciding about which airline to fly. New entrant Vistara is most punctual with 93.7% OTP followed by Indigo (89.6%) and SpiceJet (86.9%). Air India struggled with 75.5% OTP indicating its inability to compete effectively in highly competitive and growing industry.

The key reasons for Indigo’s dominance are excellent OTP coupled with lowest cancelations. During October 2015, overall cancellations rate for Indian airline industry was 0.57%. Smaller players like Trujet (14.95%), Air Costa (6.87%) and Air Pegasus (4.25%) suffered with high cancellations. While most of the major players fared well with less than 0.7% cancelled scheduled flights.