Domestic air traffic up 23% in April Indians fill one-third seats on Gulf airlines’ US flights

Domestic air traffic grew 23 per cent in April year-on-year and IndiGo enhanced its leadership position, with 37.8 per cent market share in the month.

It was the fourth consecutive month of strong growth as air traffic expanded 23 per cent to 6.5 million in April from 5.3 million a year ago. In March, domestic air traffic had risen 18.8 per cent year-on-year. Passenger growth has been driven by low fares, which are about 20 per cent lower than last summer’s.

Jet Airways remained number two, with 23.1 per cent share in April. Air India was third, with 16.2 per cent share.

SpiceJet reported the highest occupancy of 88.7 per cent in April, followed by GoAir and IndiGo, each reporting about 85 per cent occupancy. Almost all airlines reported a growth in occupancy in April (over March), which is a peak season due to summer vacations. Vistara occupancy improved after three weak months. It rose from 53 per cent in March to 67 per cent in April.

Vistara and AirAsia India also reported highest on-time performances of 96 per cent and 100 per cent, respectively, and zero cancellations in April. SpiceJet had the least on-time flights, with 75 per cent punctuality. IndiGo, which usually tops ontime performances among all airlines, had the second-lowest punctuality of 79 per cent. All other airlines had 79 to 80 per cent on-time performances.

The partial closure of Panaji runway for upgrade, operation of relief flights at Kathmandu, and runway congestion at Mumbai, led to a drop in punctuality for airlines.

A SpiceJet spokesperson said its three aircraft wet-leased from a Czech airline (with Czech pilots and cabin crew) had higher onground turnaround time compared to its own aircraft because of different standard operating procedures of the Czech airline.

This affected punctuality. Relief flights to Kathmandu were also delayed due to congestion there, a spokesperson said. IndiGo did not respond to a query.

In January and February, passenger growth was up 21 per cent over a year ago. Last year, air traffic grew by 9.7 per cent over a year ago, with airlines flying 67.3 million passengers.

In 2013, the domestic air traffic had grown 4.4 per cent over 2012. In 2013, airlines carried 61.4 million passengers, while 2012 had seen passenger numbers decline over 2011. The most frequent fliers on Gulf airlines’ US routes are Indians, accounting for more than a third of the passengers, according to a Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (Capa) report.

Gulf airlines are rapidly adding flights to the US. This month, Qatar Airways announced three destinations— Atlanta, Boston and Los Angeles — it will serve next year. Emirates announced a service to Orlando. The expansion is a source of the escalating trade dispute between Gulf and US airlines and the latter have demanded a freeze on additional flights by Gulf airlines to the US. The Capa report, released earlier this month, shows passengers from India contributed 36 per cent to Emirates and Etihad’s US traffic in a 12-month period ending August 2014. In the caseofQatar’sUStraffic, theshare of Indian passengers is 28 per cent. The second-biggest source for Gulf US flights are their local markets. The UAE contributes 18 per cent to Emirates and Etihad's US traffic. The share of other countries is under 10 per cent except Pakistan which contributes 18 per cent to Etihad's US traffic. For Qatar Airways only nine per cent of its US traffic is local. In the past two years, Etihad has been able to carry more passengers from India following its alliance with Jet but Qatar Airways' growth in the market has been slow because India has not been keen to revise air traffic rights with Qatar due to the limited interest of Indian carriers.

Two other factors have benefited Etihad to expand traffic to the US. “Etihad has been short of ultra-long-haul aircraft needed to reach the US. Etihad was able to utilise surplus Jet Airways aircraft, some being placed directly on US services,” Capa said.