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India domestic passengers increase in September
October 16th 2020
Indian aviation showed more signs of recovery in September when domestic passenger numbers rose to a six month high, figures published by the country's Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) showed this week. Read More »
The DGCA said the country’s domestic airlines flew 3.94 million passengers in September, up 39% from 2.83 million in August. It was also the highest monthly total since March, when 7.76 million domestic passengers flew on India’s airlines.
India suspended all flights at the end of March to help contain the coronavirus pandemic and also instigated a nationwide stay-at-home order.
Domestic flights resumed operations in May and passenger numbers have been on a steady upward trend since then although the September numbers were 66% below the 11.53 million passengers transported in the same month in 2019.
IndiGo was India's largest domestic airline operator in September with 2.27 million passengers, representing a market share of 57.5%, followed by SpiceJet (530,000 passengers, 13.4% market share) and state-owned Air India (372,000 passengers, 9.4% market share).
Although IndiGo had the biggest share of the market, its September passenger load factor of 65.4% ranked fourth behind SpiceJet (73%), Star Air (70.5%) and Vistara (66.7%).
AirAsia India, which is facing an uncertain future amid media reports 51% majority owner, Tata Sons, was reviewing the joint venture with Malaysia-based AirAsia Group, had 235,000 domestic passengers in September, up 22.4% from 192,000 in August.
The LCC’s 6% market share in September ranked sixth among all airlines. Load factor for the month was 58.4%.
AirAsia India CEO, Sunil Bhaskaran, said in the Indo-Asian News Service (IANS) this week the recent surge in traffic over the October 2 long weekend was an encouraging sign for demand for domestic travel.
However, he cautioned traffic was sitting at about 35% of pre-COVID-19 levels on a year-on-year basis and there was still a "long way to go", with the road to recovery expected to be "gradual and steady".
"We are operating more than 100 daily flights, which are between 45%-50% of our pre-COVID capacity, and expect a steady rise as we near the festive period," Bhaskaran told the India-based news agency.
Bhaskaran said the airline remained committed to adding five A320neo to its fleet.
"Before the onset of pandemic, we had firmed up orders to take delivery of five A320neo with CFM engines and we will be honouring the same in the next few months," Bhaskaran said. AirAsia India has 30 A320 family aircraft in its fleet, but not all of them are flying at the moment.
While domestic flights in India have resumed, scheduled international flights remain prohibited. The government is allowing repatriation flights, which have been branded under the Vande Bharat Mission umbrella, to be operated by Indian flag carriers. It also has established an air travel bubble scheme that allows foreign carriers to operate non-scheduled flights into and out of India. The scheme has expanded to 17 countries.
