Domestic air traffic in India surged a whopping 18.3% to almost 42 million for the first ten months of the year compared to 35.5 million for the same period last year. For the month of October which marks the start of the peak travel period third quarter of the fiscal, the growth was 16.3% to 4.62 million compared to October 2009 when traffic was 3.91 million.
The break-up for airlines measured in lakhs (hundred thousand) is:
Air India – 8.16 lakhs, Jet Airways –8.70 lakhs, Jet Lite – 3.43 lakhs, Kingfisher – 8.77 lakhs, Spice Jet – 6.30 lakhs, Go Air – 3.06 lakhs, IndiGo – 7.75 lakhs.
The share percentage is:
Jet Airways – 18.8%, Jet Lite – 7.4% (combined 26.2%)
Kingfisher – 19.0%
Air India – 17.7%
IndiGo – 16.8%
SpiceJet – 13.6%
Go Air – 6.6%.
Growth in capacity measured in Available Seat Kilometres (ASKM) lagged growth in demand measured in Revenue Passenger Kilometres (RPKMs) 11.5% vs 18%. With the exception of market leader Jet Airways, national carrier Air India, and low fare GoAir, all domestic airline recorded seat factor above 80%.
Air India – 70.8%, Jet Airways – 73.6%, JetLite – 80.7%, Kingfisher Airlines – 87.1%, Spice Jet – 84.4%, Go Air –77.4% and IndiGo – 86.1%.