Domestic air passenger traffic grows 18% in March

Passengers carried by domestic airlines during the month of March was higher than the same period last year registering a growth of 18.59%.

“During Jan-March 2017 were 272.79 lakhs as against 230.03 lakhs during the corresponding period of previous year thereby registering a growth of 18.59%,” DGCA report said on Thursday.

The total number of passengers in the month of March alone amounted to 90.46 lakh. In February the passenger count was 86.55 lakh.

Sourcce: DGCA report

However the passenger load factor (PLF) in the month of March, the report said had declined slightly when compared to previous month, due to lean period.

Also Read: India's domestic airline passenger growth decelerates for the first time in 16 months

SpiceJet recorded the highest PLF of 93.7% as opposed to 91.4% in February 2017.

Source: DGCA report

Overall cancellation rate of scheduled domestic airlines for the month was 0.41% with the highest cancellations being recorded by Air Carnival at 9.68%.

Source: DGCA report

Market share of each of the domestic airlines increased in March with IndiGo taking the lead at 39.9% carrying 36.11 lakh passengers and Jet Airways coming in second with 15.4% market share.

SpiceJet had a total market share of 13.2% in March while Air India was at 13%.