IndiGo remains top airline in India with 41% market share in May

Mumbai: Low-fare airline IndiGo (Interglobe Aviation Ltd) retained its No.1 spot in terms of market share among India’s air passenger careers in May, carrying 4.85 million people during the month. The low-fare airline commanded a 40.9% market share in May, against 39.8% in April, and 41.2% in May 2017, regulatory data released on Tuesday showed.

The Naresh Goyal-controlled Jet Airways (India) Ltd came a distant second, with 13.7% market share, flying 1.63 million passengers during the month, data from Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) showed.

National carrier Air India clocked 12.8% market share, carrying 1.52 million passengers, while SpiceJet, which registered 12.3% market share, carried 1.5 million passengers. Besides, GoAir carried 1.03 million passengers, AirAsia India 648,000, Vistara 471,000 and Jet Lite 182,000.

During May, SpiceJet clocked the highest passenger load factor at 94.8%, meaning nearly 95% of its seats were filled. IndiGo registered a load factor of 91%, while AirAsia India and GoAir registered 89.7% and 89.2%, respectively.

“In May 2018, we saw an overall growth of 3x (three times) in flight bookings as compared to the same period last year. We anticipate this growth to continue in the coming months,” said online travel portal Ixigo’s chief executive and co-founder, Aloke Bajpai, in a statement.

Despite the anticipated spike during the month, growth in comparison with the same period last year was only 17%, as opposed to 26% in April and 28% in March, due to the increase in fuel prices, and travel in particular sectors becoming expensive, said Bajpai.

The total number of passengers carried by domestic airlines during Jan-May 2018 was 5.71 crore, registering a growth of 22.69%, DGCA said.