India’s domestic air passenger traffic up 17% in November

Data furnished by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation revealed that passenger traffic during the January-November period grew by over 17 per cent.

Domestic air passenger traffic rose to 104.89 lakh in November — up 16.99 per cent — from 89.66 lakh reported for the corresponding month of 2016, official data showed on Tuesday. The total domestic air passenger traffic had risen by 20.52 per cent to 104.51 lakh in October.

Data furnished by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) revealed that passenger traffic during the January-November period grew by over 17 per cent.

“Passengers carried by domestic airlines during January-November 2017 were 1,059.34 lakhs as against 903.36 lakhs during the corresponding period of previous year thereby registering a growth of 17.27 per cent,” the DGCA said in its monthly domestic traffic report.

According to the data, low-cost carrier SpiceJet had the highest passenger load factor (PLF) — a measure of capacity utilisation of the airline — at 95.5 per cent during November.

“SpiceJet also recorded the highest load factor for the 32nd month in a row. The load factor at 95.5 per cent is also the highest in SpiceJet’s history. This has set a new threshold in global aviation and we are proud of that,” SpiceJet’s CMD Ajay Singh said.

SpiceJet was followed by budget passenger carriers IndiGo with PLF at 90.7 per cent and GoAir at 90 per cent.