Domestic air passenger traffic up 5.7% at 1.3 cr in June: DGCA

India's domestic air passenger traffic grew 5.76% to 1.32 crore in June 2024 compared to 1.24 crore in June last year, the latest data shared by aviation regulator DGCA shows. IndiGo carried 80.86 lakh passengers in June, followed by Tata Group's airlines Air India and Vistara at 17.47 lakh and 12.84 lakh, respectively.

During June 2024, a total of 786 passenger-related complaints had been received by the scheduled domestic airlines. The number of complaints per 10,000 passengers carried for June 2024 has been around 0.60.

Performance of domestic airlines for the year 2024 so far shows a 4.28% increase in the overall air traffic as the passengers carried by domestic airlines during January-June 2024 were 793.48 lakh against 760.93 lakh during the corresponding period of the previous year.

The passenger load factors of various scheduled domestic airlines in June 2024 show SpiceJet at the top at 91.5%, followed by Vistara at 91% and IndiGo at 87%. The overall cancellation rate of scheduled domestic airlines for June 2024 has been 1.47 %. Airline-wise, the cancellation rate for Fly Big was the highest at 22.78%, followed by Indiaone Air at 9.33%, and Alliance Air at 4.36%.

Among the top reasons for cancellations are miscellaneous (40.1%), operational (22.9%) and technical (25.9%). During the reporting month, budget carrier IndiGo continued its leading streak at 61% market share, followed by Air India at 14.2% and Vistara at 9.4%

Airline-wise, Fly Big received the highest 15.7 complaints on average per 10,000 passengers, followed by SpiceJet at 7.3% and Alliance Air at 2.5%. Various reasons for passenger complaints were flight problems (42.1%), baggage (21.8%) and staff behaviour (6.9%).

On-time performance (OTP) of scheduled domestic airlines has been computed for four metro airports -- Bangalore, Delhi, Hyderabad, and Mumbai. The data shows Akasa Air's on-time performance at the top at 79.5%, followed by Vistara at 79% and AIX Connect at 78.4%.

Ratings agency ICRA in its recent report on the domestic aviation market said its outlook on the Indian aviation industry was "Stable", amid the continued recovery in air traffic, with a relatively stable cost environment. "Moreover, the industry witnessed improved pricing power, reflected in the higher yields (over pre-COVID levels) and, thus, the revenue per available seat kilometre–cost per available seat kilometre (RASK–CASK) spread of the airlines.”

Despite a healthy recovery in air traffic and improvement in yields, the movement of the latter will remain monitorable amid elevated aviation turbine fuel (ATF) prices and depreciation of the INR vis-à-vis the USD over pre-COVID levels, said ICRA. Both of these two factors have a major bearing on the airlines’ cost structure.

In terms of recovery in the domestic aviation market, ICRA said it's going to be "gradual", primarily due to the high fixed-cost nature of the business. “The Indian aviation industry is expected to report a similar net loss of ₹30-40 billion in FY2025 as seen in FY2024, though significantly lower than ₹170-175 billion in FY2023.”