Domestic passenger traffic in April rises 2.4% YoY, slightly lower than March

AIX Connect and Vistara were second and third, followed by IndiGo.

On-time performance of airlines rose in March after heavy fog forced flight delays throughout December, January, and February, but dipped again in April due to protects across the Tata Group airlines.

Akasa Air reported a 5 percent rise in punctuality in April, however, all other airlines saw a fall in their punctuality when compared to March 2024.

Air traffic was also higher than pre-COVID levels. In April 2019, domestic airlines flew only 109.95 lakh passengers.

Cancellation factor

The overall cancellation rate of scheduled domestic airlines for April 2024 stood at 0.80 percent, around 17 basis points higher than the 0.63 percent in March but lower than the 0.9 percent seen in February and 3.67 percent seen in January.

Flybig, a regional airline based in Gurugram (Haryana), recorded the highest cancellation rate of 10 percent, new airline Zoom was second with a cancellation rate of 9.55 percent.

Alliance Air had the third-highest cancellation rate at 3.99 percent and Vistara was fourth at 2.40 percent. Between March 31 and April 3, Vistara saw over 150 flights cancelled and 200 delayed for over two hours resulting in a massive disruption at the airline, primarily due to challenges with “crew unavailability” due to multiple factors.

SpiceJet at 1.48 percent, and Connect and IndiGo recorded cancellation rate of 0.55 percent and 0.47 percent, respectively.

Among the reasons behind cancellations, miscellaneous reasons like Vistara facing cancellations due to crew unavailability were the paramount factor with a share of 42.3 percent followed by technical, weather, operational and commercial factors at 28.2 percent, 16.2 percent, 12.6 percent and 0.7 percent, respectively.

Complaints

During April 2024, a total of 774 passenger-related complaints were received by scheduled domestic airlines. The number of complaints per 10,000 passengers carried for April has been around 0.59.

The major reasons for complaints are flight problem-related. Airlines have received a total of 774 complaints of which 772 (approximately 99.7 percent) have been addressed.

The aviation pie

The market share of India’s largest airline, IndiGo, rose 10 basis points in April, after shedding 160 basis points in January 2024. The airline’s market share is now 60.6 percent, with the low-cost carrier flying 80 lakh passengers in April.

One basis point is one-hundredth of a percentage point.

IndiGo lost market share in January after its On-Time Performance dropped to 43.7 percent on January 17, the lowest in the industry after the airline, and its operations were hit for two weeks due to fog-related disruptions in northern India.

IndiGo was forced to cancel nearly 500 flights in January due to fog-related disruptions in northern India.

Air India remained the second-largest domestic carrier in April and garnered a market share of 14.2 percent, flying 18.8 lakh passengers during the period.

Vistara’s market share in April remained fell 40 basis points to 9.2 percent, the airline flew 12.18 lakh passengers in April. Vistara on April 7 had said that it was reducing capacity by 10 percent, which is around 25-30 flights daily, as the carrier strives to stabilise operations.

The market share of AIX Connect, which, too, is part of the Tata stable, also fell 40 basis points to 4.4 percent, as the carrier served 5.8 lakh passengers in April.

SpiceJet’s market share in April was 4.7 percent falling 60 basis points when compared to March. The airline carried 6.17 lakh passengers. The airline’s market share has fallen from a peak market share of 10.7 percent in February 2022.

Akasa Air remained behind SpiceJet after struggling with pilot shortages and grounded aircraft.

Akasa Air carried 5.8 lakh passengers in April for a market share of 4.4 percent unchanged from March.

The passenger load factor, or the occupancy rate, of SpiceJet, Vistara, IndiGo, Air India, and AIX Connect stood at 90.9 percent, 90.9 percent, 86.6 percent, 84.3 percent, and 85.8 percent, respectively, in April.

Akasa Air’s passenger load factor fell to 87.9 percent from 88.4 percent in March and 92.4 percent in February. The airline completed one full year of operations on August 7, 2023.

Delays and compensations

According to the DGCA data, a total of 1,370 passengers were denied boarding in April and an amount of Rs 136.23 lakhs was spent by the airlines as compensation and facilities.

In the cancellations category, 32,314 passengers were impacted and Rs 89.26 lakhs was spent by the carriers as compensation and facilities.

Around 1,09,910 passengers were impacted by flight delays in April 2024 and received compensation of Rs 135.42 lakhs.