Indian airlines, which restarted domestic flights from 25 May, struggled to fill up seats in their aircraft during the last seven days of the month, as per the data published by Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).
The market leader IndiGo, which had a market share of 50.6% in May, recorded a load factor rate of 52.6% during the month.
This means that the airline could only fill about one of two seats that it offered to passengers.
- The load factor, also known as the passenger load factor, is a metric used by the aerospace industry to measure how much passenger transportation capacity an airline uses.
SpiceJet Limited, which is led by Ajay Singh, had a load factor of 57.2% in May, while the market share was 17.1%.
The domestic business of the national airline Air India Limited recorded a load facotr of 54% and a market share of 17.3% during the month.
Vistara, a joint venture between Tata Sons and Singapore Airlines, reported an 44.1% load factor and a market share of 6.5%.
AirAsia India, a joint venture between Tata Sons and AirAsia Berhad, reported 46% load factor and a market share of 7.8% during the month.
GoAir, which is controlled by the Wadia Group, resumed operations on 1st June.
As of March 25, the Indian government had declared a nationwide lockdown on and cessation of flights to curb the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic, which affected millions of people worldwide.
Domestic passenger traffic declined 43.39% from January to May compared to the same period last year due to the lockdown caused by Covid-19.
Domestic airlines carried 33.2 million passengers from January to May, compared to 58.6 million in the same period last year, the DGCA said in a statement.
Air India carried 49,000 passengers in May while IndiGo carried 142,000 passengers.
SpiceJet carried 48,000 passengers a month, while AirAsia India and Vistara carried 22,000 passengers and 18,000 passengers a month, respectively, according to the data.
(Source – Live Mint)
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