October domestic air traffic flies 20.50% to 10.45 million

The combined passenger traffic of all airlines stood at 8.67 million in October 2016, according to the data released by the regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Friday.

Earlier in May, airlines had flown 10.74 million passengers with a growth of 17.36 per cent over May 2016.

In October, all the airlines, barring the disinvestment-bound national carrier Air India, logged a healthy passenger load factor at above 80 per cent owing to the onset of festive season, as per the DGCA passenger data released on Friday.

Also, the fledgling carrier Zoom Air had the highest cancellation rate during the reporting month at 8.06 per cent, whereas the overall cancellation rate of the all scheduled domestic airlines stood at 0.50 per cent in the month.

The passenger load factor (PLF) which is a measure of how full the plane flies, in the reporting month showed a slightly increasing trend compared to the previous month primarily due to the onset of tourist season, as per the DGCA.

Budget carrier IndiGo flew the most number of passengers ferrying 41.33 lakh, while the second largest player Jet Airways was at a distant second with 15.88 lakh passengers.

However, Air India unseated budget carrier SpiceJet for the third spot ferrying 13.66 lakh passengers against 13.64 lakh flown by the Ajay Singh-promoted private airline.

GoAir and AirAsia India, the two other budget carriers, flew 9.24 lakh and 4.52 lakh passengers, respectively, during the month, as the DGCA data.

Vistara, the third full-service carrier after Air India and Jet Airways, ferried 3.70 lakh in the month.

During the month, SpiceJet saw its planes flying with over 90 per cent seat occupancy for the 31st consecutive time at 93.7 per cent. As against this, Air India flew with almost a quarter of seats empty with a PLF of just 76.6 per cent.

"This is for the 31st month in a row that SpiceJet has flown with load factors in excess of 90 per cent," a the airline said in a statement.

With the maximum number of domestic passengers in its kitty, IndiGo also increased its market share by nearly a percentage points to 39.5 per cent, up from 38.2 per cent in the previous month, followed by Jet Airways with 15.88 per cent, according to the data. Interestingly, the market share of both Air India and SpiceJet stood at 13.1 per cent, each.