India Sep air traffic rises 6%; Akasa sees drop in flights cancellation rate

New Delhi: Domestic air traffic in September rose more than 6% compared to the pre-pandemic period, and 18.3% year-on-year to 12.25 million passengers, as per data from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation.

India’s youngest airline Akasa Air, which had seen a spike in flight cancellations during July and August, saw a decline in the cancellation rate to 0.37% for September, the data showed. The airline’s flights cancellation rate for July and August stood at 0.45% and 1.17% respectively.

In terms of passenger load factor, all airlines witnessed a higher capacity utilisation sequentially in September, with Vistara achieving the highest passenger load factor (PLF) among all airlines at 92%. PLF for SpiceJet stood at 91.4% and for IndiGo, it was at 84.7%.

IndiGo continued to be the largest player in the domestic segment, with 63.4% market share, followed by Vistara at 10%, Air India at 9.8%, AirAsia India at 6.7%, SpiceJet at 4.4%, and Akasa at 4.2%.

IndiGo was the most punctual airline with a punctuality rate of 83.6%, followed by AirAsia at 81.6%, Air India at 74.4%, Vistara at 74.3%, Akasa at 74%, SpiceJet at 67.2%, and Alliance Air at 67.1%.

Every month since January, air travel has risen in comparison to the corresponding pre-pandemic period by an average of nearly 8%, official data showed. Despite the grounding of Go First and steep fares, domestic air passenger traffic hit a record in May. During the month, Indian airlines carried over 13.2 million passengers, crossing the previous record of 13.02 million set in December 2019.

The current quarter is expected to see strong demand air travel amid festival and holiday season.