Domestic air traffic shows negative growth for the first time in years

New Delhi: Reflecting a continuing downturn in the prospects of the aviation industry, Indian domestic carriers reported a further slide in passenger traffic for the second month in a row. Figures reveal that domestic airlines carried only 3.04 million passengers in July, down a whopping 12.64 per cent over the previous figures of 3.48 million for the same period last year.

What is significant that the fall in numbers comes in spite of significant capacity reduction by the carriers.

Domestic passenger traffic declined 4% in June 2008, suffering negative growth for the first time in years.

According to DGCA data, the load factor of almost all the airlines declined. The largest budget airline of the country, Air Deccan, registered only 49.2 per cent load factor in July as compared to 67.7 per cent in the same month last year. Its market share declined 11.3 per cent in July from 16.1 per cent. SpiceJet's seat factor declined to 57.8 per cent in July 2008 from 71.4 per cent in the corresponding month last year. 

The break-up of passengers carried by the airlines in July 2008 is as follows:

Jet Airways                    7.17 lakhs
Air India (Domestic)       5.56 lakhs
Kingfisher                       4.69 lakhs
Deccan                           3.45 lakhs
IndiGo                            3.20 lakhs
Spice Jet                         2.55 lakhs
Jet Lite                            2.53 lakhs
Go Air                            0.75 lakhs
Paramount                      0.49 lakhs
MDLR                           0.07 lakhs

Market share:  
                     June 2008    July 2008
Jet Airways     21.2%            23.5%
Air India          16.4%           18.3%
Kingfisher        14.3%           15.4%
Jetlite                 8.1%             8.3%
Paramount          1.3%            1.6%

The market share of the other airlines have marginally decreased.

The percentage share of the carriers in the month of July 2008 was:

Jet Airways                   23.5%
Air India (Domestic)      18.3%
Kingfisher                      15.4%
Air Deccan                    11.3%
IndiGo                           10.5%
Spice Jet                          8.4%
Jet Lite                             8.3%
Go Air                              2.5%
Paramount                        1.6%
MDLR                             0.22%

The seat factors of the domestic airlines in July 2008 were:
Go Air                          76.9%
Paramount Airways       76.1%
Jet Airways                   67.9%
Kingfisher Airlines         63.3%
JetLite                           60.4%
IndiGo                          59.0%
Spice Jet                       57.8%
Air India (Domestic)      55.5%
MDLR                           50.2%
Air Deccan                     49.2%