Top airlines: IndiGo retains No 1 position

Domestic air traffic logged 14.35 per cent growth in November as compared to the corresponding period last year propelled by the festive season rush, official data showed.

The number of passengers rose to 58.74 lakh as against 1.37 lakh carried by the seven Indian airlines a year-ago, the data showed.

The traffic logged a 19.4 per cent growth in the April-November period this year, with all domestic airlines combined having flown 609.43 lakh passengers in the period compared to 558 lakh passengers flown in November 2013.

IndiGo was inching closer to the two-million passenger mark as it flew 19.60 lakh passengers last month, followed by Jet Airways with 10.81, Air India carried 10.27 lakh passengers in November.

Another budget carrier SpiceJet, which is surviving to remain in the skies, cornered the fourth position as it carried 8.76 lakh passengers, while Wadia Group promoted low-cost airline GoAir flew 5.29 lakh passengers during the reporting month.

New entrant AirAsia India and regional carrier Air Costa also flown 0.60 and 0.61 lakh passengers during the previous month.

IndiGo remained the market leader with 33.50 market share while Air India's cornering 18.4 per cent. SpiceJet's pie was reduced to 14.9 per cent on account of large scale cancellations of its flights during the period.

Jet Airways and its subsidiary JetLite had 18.4 per cent and 4.6 per cent market share while the GoAir clocked a 9 per cent. AirAsia India and Air Costa had to contend with one per cent each.

Interestingly, SpiceJet's flights were filled maximum having 83.6 per cent load factor followed by Jet Airways with 83.8 per cent occupancy.

IndiGo which had a 78.6 per cent load factor during the month while Air India's load factor stood at 76.9 per cent.

During the month, SpiceJet cancelled 16.2 per cent of the total flights that it operated in November followed by AirAsia India and Air India with 2.65 per cent and 2.11 per cent cancellations respectively.