October air passenger traffic up 23%

New Delhi, Nov 21 (IANS) Domestic air passenger traffic increased by 23.20 per cent last month to 86.72 lakh, official data showed on Monday.

The domestic passenger traffic during the corresponding month of last year stood at 70.39 lakh.

In September, the passenger traffic had risen by 23.46 per cent to 82.30 lakh.

According to the data furnished by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), passenger traffic during January-October period grew by 23.18 per cent.

"Passengers carried by domestic airlines during January-October 2016 were 813.70 lakh as against 660.60 lakh during the corresponding period of previous year thereby registering a growth of 23.18 per cent," the DGCA said in its statistical analysis for the last month.

Commenting on the latest data, Civil Aviation Minister P. Ashok Gajapathi Raju said in a tweet: "India continues to be the land of 20 per cent growth in aviation; October 2016 registers record 23 per cent growth again."

The data showed that low-cost carrier (LCC) SpiceJet had the highest passenger load factor (PLF) during the month under review at 91.9 per cent.

The LCC was followed by budget passenger carriers -- IndiGo (84.9) and GoAir (84.4).

"The passenger load factor in the month of October 2016 has almost remained constant compared to previous month primarily due to the end of tourist season," the DGCA said.

The data showed that in terms of on-time performance -- SpiceJet led the industry with 86.1 per cent punctuality rate at four major airports of Bengaluru, Delhi, Hyderabad and Mumbai.

It was followed by Vistara (83.6) and IndiGo (81.2).

Meanwhile, Air Carnival had the highest number of cancellations at 8.74 per cent followed by Trujet (6.79) and Air Costa (2.52).

"The overall cancellation rate of scheduled domestic airlines for the month of October 2016 has been 0.72 per cent," the aviation regulator said.

According to the data, a total of 790 passenger related complaints had been received last month.

Budget passenger carrier IndiGo achieved the highest market share in the month under review at 42.6 per cent followed by Jet Airways (14.7 ), Air India (13), SpiceJet (12.9), GoAir (7.9) and Vistara and AirAsia India both at 2.7 per cent each.

LCC JetLite reported a market share of 2.4 per cent, followed by Air Costa (0.6), Trujet (0.4) and Air Carnival (0.1).