Akasa Air beats SpiceJet in domestic traffic in June

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation released the air traffic data for June on Friday. In June, Indian airlines carried as many as 124.87 lakh passengers, up 18.78% as against 105.12 lakh passengers in the same period last year. While most domestic carriers witnessed a consistent increase in air traffic, the newly launched Akasa Air defeated the beleaguered airline SpiceJet, in terms of domestic passengers carried per month.

During the month under review, the market share of Akasa Air increased from 4.8% in May to 4.9% in June. Akasa Air carried 6.18 lakh passengers in June. In contrast to this, SpiceJet carried 5.55 lakh passengers in June. SpiceJet, however, witnessed a decline in market share from 5.4% to 4.4% during the month under review.

The development comes as the beleaguered airline is facing the double whammy of financial distress over the past several months as well as the company’s lessors seeking repossession of aircraft. 

Notably, domestic air traffic witnessed a growth of 32.9% year-on-year in the January to June period this year. The domestic airlines carried 760.93 lakh passengers in the period under review, as against 572.49 lakh passengers in the same period last year.

IndiGo continued to helm its position as a market leader in June. Amidst the insolvency proceedings of Go First, IndiGo's market share increased from 61.4% to 63.2% in May. The low-cost carrier carried 78.93 lakh passengers during the month under review as against 81.10 lakh passengers in May. The airline carried 234.09 lakh passengers in the April to June period of CY23, as against 209.07 lakh passengers in the January to March period this year.

This was followed by Tata Group's Air India, whose market share increased from 9.4% in May to 9.7% in June. The Tata Group-owned carrier carried 12.13 lakh passengers in June as against 12.44 lakh passengers in May this year. On a quarterly basis, the airline’s market share increased from 9% in January to March period this year to 9.3% in April to June period this year.

Vistara was the third-largest airline in terms of market share in June. The airline’s market share, however, declined from 9% in May to 8.1% in June. The airline carried 10.11 lakh passengers in June. On a quarterly basis, the airline’s market share declined from 8.8% in January to March period to 8.6% in April to June period.

Tata Group-owned Air Asia witnessed a marginal increase in market share from 7.9% in May to 8% in June. The airline carried 10.04 lakh passengers in June. On a quarterly basis, the airline cornered a market share of 7.8% in April to June period as against 7.3% in January to March period this year.

In June, a total of 344 passenger-related complaints had been received by the scheduled domestic airlines. The number of complaints per 10,000 passengers carried for the month of June 2023 has been around 0.28, says DGCA.