Indian Budget Carriers Lead Traffic Gains In May

News

AWIN First Jun 16 , 2010
Neelam Mathews mathews.neelam@gmail.com

Loads are up in India, with domestic airlines carrying 22% more passengers in May -- 4.78 million -- compared with 3.92 million in the same 2009 month, according to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).

Some carriers took aircraft out of service last year and also deferred deliveries.

Budget carriers continue to lead the pack: IndiGo posted a load factor of 92.3% in May, up from 85% last year; SpiceJet followed with 90.4%, up from 79.1%, and JetLite with 85.4%, up from 77.4%. All-business carrier Paramount Airways, no longer flying as a result of having to return aircraft after defaulting on lease payments, had a load factor of 86.6%.

Legacy carrier Kingfisher reported a load factor of 83.2%, up from 72.9% last May, and Jet Airways posted 82.5%, compared with 69.2%. Air India was close behind with 77.8%, up from 69%.

Analysis of traffic data on a year-over-year basis indicates that the trend of increasing capacity and demand continued in May, the DGCA said.

While market share is not necessarily an indicator of an airline’s financial health, Jet Airways captured a 26.2% share, Kingfisher 20.9% and Air India 17.7%. IndiGo’s share was at 15.7%, SpiceJet’s 13.2% and Go Air’s 5.9%.

During May, the DGCA received 1,549 passenger-related complaints, about 3.3 per per 10,000 passengers.