About 1.06 crore domestic passengers traveled by air in March, which is almost 38% more than the 76.96 lakh who flew in February, data from the Directorate General of Aviation Regulatory General (DGCA) said on Wednesday. The passenger load factor, meaning the occupancy rate, stood at over 80% for all private carriers in March.
spicejet load factor, IndigoVistara, GoFirst, Air India and AirAsia India stood at 86.9 per cent, 81 per cent, 86.1 per cent, 81.4 per cent, 85 per cent and 81.3 per cent respectively in March 2022. Alliance Air recorded a load factor of 74 per cent in March this year.
DGCA said IndiGo carried 58.61 lakh passengers in March, which is 54.8 per cent of the domestic market. Go First was at number two as it carried 10.44 lakh passengers in March. SpiceJet carried 10.21 lakh passengers and Air India 9.36 lakh passengers in March.
Data shows that Vistara, AirAsia India and Alliance Air carried 8.9 lakh, 6.98 lakh and 1.45 lakh passengers respectively in March.
DGCA data in March said IndiGo delivered the best on-time performance of 93.9 per cent across four metro airports – Bengaluru, Delhi, Hyderabad and Mumbai. In the last two years, the aviation sector has been hit hard by the travel restrictions imposed in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic in India and other countries.
The government allowed domestic airlines to operate at 100% of their pre-Covid capacity from October last year. The Ministry of Civil Aviation had capped domestic airline capacity with effect from May 2020.