Domestic airlines record 43% rise in passengers from Jan-Apr: DGCA

As per the latest data of DGCA, domestic airlines carried 503.93 lakh passengers between January to April 2023, as against 352.70 lakhs during the corresponding period of the previous year thereby registering an annual growth of 42.88 %. Indigo continued to hold its leadership position, while late market mogul Rakesh Jhunjhunwala-backed Akasa Air is gaining strong traction in terms of passenger load factor. Go First and SpiceJet's PLF stood on a muted note. 

On a month-on-month basis, the growth was at 22.20 %.

In terms of passenger load factor, the largest airline in terms of market share, Indigo saw its PLF at 87.4% in April versus 84% in March 2023. New entrant Akasa Air saw significant jump in PLF to 84.9% in April as against 73.6% in March month.

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In April month, embattled Go First's PLF also picked up to 91.2%, however at a slower pace against 90.2% in March. Another cash-trapped airline SpiceJet as well saw a muted performance in PLF to 92.2% in April versus 92.3% in March.

Tata Group-backed Vistara and Air Asia's PLF stood at 92.1 and 89.4% in April 2023 as against 91.6% and 88.6% in March respectively. Former national carier, Air India which is now part of Tata Group as well, posted a PLF of 87.9% improving from 85.1% in March 2023.

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By end of April 2023, market share of Indigo stood at 57.5%, followed by Vistara at 8.7%, Air India at 8.6%, Air Asia at 7.6%, Go First at 6.4%, SpiceJet at 5.8%, and Akasa Air at 4%.

The overall cancellation rate of scheduled domestic airlines for the month of April 2023 has been 0.47 %.

During April 2023, a total of 360 passenger-related complaints had been received by the scheduled domestic airlines. The number of complaints per 10,000 passengers carried for the month of April 2023 has been around 0.28.