Air passenger traffic falls for fourth month
NEWDELHI: The number of domestic air passengers fell by 2.20% in September, the fourth straight month of decline analysts put down to market uncertainties in a slowing economy and a lean travel season.
Monthly passenger traffic fell by 0.94% in August, according to data issued by the directorate general of civil aviation (DGCA) on Thursday.
Domestic airlines carried 11.53 million passengers in September, compared with 11.79 million in August, 11.90 million in July and 12.02 million in June.
However, the number of passengers carried by domestic airlines during January-September 2019 stood at 105.89 million as against 102.79 million during the corresponding period of 2018, marking a growth of 3.01%, the DGCA added. “The numbers are disappointing. They have pulled down our projection and now we peg (the yearly growth) for 2019 at 4 to 6%. The good news is that we have managed to withstand the sad exit of Jet Airways (India) Ltd and maintained a positive growth despite three months of negative or almost flat growth,” said a DGCA official, requesting anonymity.
The shrinking of the fleet size of Indian commercial airlines on account of Jet Airways’ grounding has been largely reversed, a senior DGCA official said adding that the regulator expects the Indian airlines to have an all-time high fleet of more than 616 aircraft in the air in a month. “With some more aircraft joining the fleet of Indian airlines by 31 December, we expect a return to double digit growth in the early part of next year,” the official added.
InterGlobe Aviation Ltd’s IndiGo continued its market dominance, carrying nearly one in every two passengers with its market share rising to 48.2% from 47% in August.