Growth in domestic air passenger traffic plummets to 3.74% in 2019

This is much lower than the growth of 18.6% it registered in 2018 amid a slowdown in the economy and the shutting down of Jet Airways.
Growth in domestic air passenger traffic plummets to 3.74% in 2019
Growth in domestic air passenger traffic plummets to 3.74% in 2019
Written by:

Domestic air passenger traffic in India rose 3.74% in 2019 on a year-on-year basis between January to December 2019, according to data released by Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). On a monthly basis, it grew by 2.56%. The data showed that during Jan-Dec 2019, passengers carried by domestic airlines were 14.41 crore as against 13.89 crore for the corresponding period of the previous year.

This is much lower than the growth it registered in the previous year. The passenger traffic in 2018 grew by 18.6%.

"In 2019, we faced headwinds on account of Jet Airways but 2020 is going to be different and the double-digit growth should be back sooner rather than later," a senior DGCA official said.

Speaking of December, air passenger traffic growth rate in the month rose a mere 2.56% to 1.30 crore from 1.26 crore for the corresponding month of the previous fiscal. November-December is usually a busy period given the holiday season.

DGCA data also showed that the overall cancellation rate of scheduled domestic airlines for the month of December 2019 was 2.34%. In terms of airlines, Air Deccan was still the airline that cancelled the most number of flights. But among the popular airlines that run domestic operations, Air India saw most cancellations at 3.76%, followed by Go Air with a cancellation rate of 2.74%. Air Asia and Vistara were the most punctual with a cancellation rate of only 1.05%.

Air India was also the airline with most complaints. It registered 2.3 complaints for every 10,000 passengers. Vistara had the least at 0.1 per 10,000 passengers.

Weather was the reason for most cancellations.

IndiGo has the most market share at 47.1%, followed by SpiceJet with a market share of 14.9%, Air India with 12.7 and Go Air with 10.6% share of the market.

IndiGo was also the most punctual airline with an On-Time Performance (OTP) of 70.6, followed by Vistara, Air Asia, Go Air and SpiceJet. Air India’s domestic operations were the least punctual.

Related Stories

No stories found.
The News Minute
www.thenewsminute.com