April Domestic Air Traffic Crosses Pre-pandemic Levels, Says DGCA Data

Air traffic numbers have surpassed pre-pandemic levels, indicating a return to normalcy after the chaos caused during the pandemic, revealed the data released by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Friday.

India’s domestic air traffic in April 2023 at 12.89 million passengers falls a little below March 2023 air traffic, which was 12.89 million passengers. Despite this fall in number, this year’s April traffic has not only surpassed the numbers from April 2022, but has also risen above pre-pandemic figures of nearly 11 million passengers in April 2019, showing a 22 per cent growth.

Indigo’s market share rose by 130 basis points or bps (one basis point is one-hundredth of a percentage point.) in February, 90 in March and 70 in April. The market share for the airline is now 57.5 per cent, making up for 7.41 million of the passengers in April. In terms of on-time performance (OTP), the airline came in at 89.6 per cent.

The second-largest carrier was Vistara, flying 1.12 million passengers in April with a market share of 8.7 per cent. Vistara's OTP was at 86.5 per cent.

Air India’s market share fell by 20 bps, flying 1.11 million passengers in April. The market share has been falling by 20-30 bps every month, going from 9.2 per cent in January to 8.6 per cent in April. It’s OTP was at 91.1 per cent.

Another Tata venture, AirAsia India’s market share remained stable at 7.6 per cent in April, carrying 981,000 passengers, at 82.9 per cent OTP.

SpiceJet fell lower than Go First in market shares, making up for 5.8 per cent of the domestic market, having carried 741,000 passengers in April with a 69.2 per cent OTP.

Go First, which has reportedly been canceling flights due to a financial crunch, fell by 50 bps to 6.4 per cent in April the lowest OTP at 41.7 per cent.

"Passengers carried by domestic airlines during January-April 2023 were 503.93 lakh (50.39 million) as against 352.70 lakh (35.27 million) during the corresponding period of the previous year, thereby registering annual growth of 42.88 per cent and monthly growth of 22.20 per cent," the Directorate General of Civil Aviation said on Friday, in a PTI report.

The occupancy rate in April of SpiceJet, Vistara, IndiGo, Air India and AirAsia India were at 92.2 per cent, 92.1 per cent, 87.4 per cent, 87.9 per cent, and 89.4 per cent, respectively. GoFirst reported an occupancy rate of 91.2 per cent.

India’ youngest airline, Akasa Air, reported an occupancy rate of 84.9 per cent in April, its ninth month of operations. The airline carried 513,000 passengers in April making up 4 per cent of the market share.