Airlines struggle to fill seats in June as travel demand remains muted

Indian airlines operated up to fourth of their capacity in June, as the surge in covid-19 cases and restrictions imposed by states led to muted travel demand.

Indian carriers flew 1.98 million passengers during the month, down from 12.03 million in the year-ago period, monthly data from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) released on Friday showed.

The passenger load factor of major scheduled commercial airlines stood between 54% and 68%, which showed that carriers could fill up to two-thirds of the total seats. In June 2019, the passenger load factor stood at 81-94%.

Load factor, or passenger load factor, is an aviation industry metric that measures an airline’s passenger-carrying capacity.

India’s largest airline IndiGo registered a 52.8% market share in June, reporting 60.7% load factor. The airline carried 1.04 million passengers during the month. SpiceJet, which has a market share of 16.8%, registered 68% load factor in June, ferrying 0.33 million passengers. Air India’s domestic operations registered 56.5% load factor during the month with a market share of 12.2%. The national carrier ferried 0.24 million people in June.

Vistara, a joint venture between Tata Sons and Singapore Airlines, reported a load factor of 56.6% and 5.6% market share, while AirAsia India, a Tata Sons-AirAsia Berhad venture, reported a 56.5% load factor and a 7.1% market share in June. GoAir, which is controlled by the Wadia Group, reported a 57.9% load factor and a 4.5% market share. Vistara carried 112,000 passengers. AirAsia India 140,000, while GoAir ferried 89,000 people.

“Passengers carried by domestic airlines during the January-June period were 35.18 million as against 70.66 million in the corresponding period of the previous year, thereby registering an annual growth of -50.22% and monthly growth of -83.50%,” DGCA said.

In June, Vistara cancelled 16.50% of its flights, while the overall cancellation rate of scheduled domestic airlines stood at 3.03%.

Domestic air passenger services had resumed on 25 May.