Aviation regulator, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has indicated that the Indian airlines have registered 28.03% growth in domestic passengers during the month of March. It noted that in March 2018, domestic airlines flew 1.15 crore passengers compared to 90.45 lakh passengers flown during the corresponding month last year. Moreover, passengers carried by the domestic airlines between January and March this year also saw a growth of 23.87 percent as compared to the same period last year.
According to the data, the SpiceJet continued to maintain its pole position on the load factor front by flying its planes 95% seats full, followed by IndiGo, which flew its planes with 89% seats full. Vistara came third by flying its planes with 88.2% seats full. Besides, IndiGo pipped SpiceJet on 'on-time performance' at 84.1%. SpiceJet was at 83.9 percent and the Vistara closely following at 83 percent. The on-time performance of disinvestment-bound Air India improved from 68.8 percent in March to 76.5 percent. The performance was computed based on data from Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad airports.
The DGCA further revealed that IndiGo led the industry with the highest market share of 39.5%, followed by Jet Airways (15%) and Air India (13.4%). However, the overall cancellation of the airlines stood at 1.38 percent, higher than 0.89 percent in February. While 80.25 percent of the Air Deccan flights remained cancelled in March, Vistara on the other hand reported zero cancellations. More than 60.5 percent of the cancellations were due to technical reasons. During this period, about 657 passenger-related complaints were received. They ranged from flight problem to baggage and customer services.