Domestic air passenger traffic grew at a multi-year low rate of 3.7 percent to 14.42 crore in 2019, primarily due to shutdown of Jet Airways, according to DGCA. The domestic air passenger growth in December 2019 also grew slower at 2.56 percent to 1.3 crore passengers.

The growth trend in December was in stark contrast to the air traffic

data of November 2019 when air traffic grew in double-digit for the first time in 2019.

In November, grew passenger growth was at 11.2 percent compared to the same period last year, according to the data released by aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Monday.

Absence of a large airline like Jet Airways, flight cancellations on account of bad weather, fog and unrest in northeast region are some of the reasons for fewer number of passengers flying in December compared to November and the same period last year, the aviation regulator said.

“A bit disappointing. In 2019, we faced headwinds on account of Jet Airways but 2020 is going to be different and double-digit growth should be back sooner rather than later,” said DGCA Director General Arun Kumar.

In terms of passenger load factor (PLF) or capacity utilisation, all airlines witnessed a fall. IndiGo’s PLF fell to 90.1 percent in December in comparison to 91.4 percent in November. However, the airline’s market share remained constant at 47.5 percent.

SpiceJet’s PLF fell to 92.7 percent in December from 92.8 percent in the preceding month. Its market share showed an increase of 16.5 percent in December from 16.1 percent in November.

GoAir witnessed a fall in PLF at 89.7 percent in December from 92.7 percent in November. GoAir; which had to cancel several flights in December on account of pilot shortage, bad weather and other reasons; saw a significant dip in market share for December at 10.2 percent compared to 11.0 percent in November 2019.

For Air India, capacity utilisation fell to 80.8 percent in December from 83.0 percent the previous month and its market share declined to 11.9 percent from 12.1 percent.

Vistara, however, improved market share to 6.1 percent in the last month of 2019 from 5.9 percent in November. AirAsia India also increased its market share to 7 percent from 6.8 percent.

Overall, IndiGo ended 2019 with 47.1 percent market share, followed by SpiceJet at 14.9 percent, Air India at 12.7 percent, GoAir at 10.6 percent, while AirAsia India and Vistara kept their market share at 6.2 percent and 5.2 percent, respectively.

IndiGo replaced GoAir after it remained the most punctual airline for the fourteenth month in a row by being on time on 67.6 percent of occasions. GoAir was followed by Vistara with a punctuality rate of 67.4 percent.

IndiGo became the most punctual airline after 16 months and replaced GoAir with on-time performance of 70.6 percent across four metro airports. While GoAir had been the most punctual airline since September 2018, the last time IndiGo was most punctual in July 2018.

IndiGo was followed by Vistara with on-time performance of 67.9 percent, followed by AirAsia with a punctuality rate of 67.1 percent and GoAir was at the fourth spot with a punctuality rate of 64.7 percent.

SpiceJet was fifth in line with OTP of 59.4 percent and Air India was the least punctual at 48 percent on-time performance.

First Published:Jan 20, 2020 10:29 PM IST