India's Domestic Passenger Volume Rose 65 Per Cent To 1 Crore In September: DGCA

Indian domestic carriers (excluding newly launched Akasa Air) had flown a total of 76.6 lakh passengers on the local routes

Domestic air passenger volume grew 64.61 per cent to 1.03 crore in September over the same period last year, according to a data released by aviation safety regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Wednesday, the PTI reported.

Indian domestic carriers (excluding newly launched Akasa Air) had flown a total of 76.6 lakh passengers on the local routes, the data showed. Akasa Air commenced its flight services on domestic routes from August 7 this year.

The average passenger load factor (PLF) of these carriers stood at 77.5 per cent against 72.5 per cent PLF delivered in August 2022, the DGCA data show.

PLF is an airline metric that measures how much of an airline's passenger carrying capacity is used.

In terms of market share, leading carrier IndiGo cornered 57 per cent of the total domestic traffic pie, carrying 59.72 lakh passengers across its domestic network followed by full service carrier Vistara, which flew 9.96 lakh passengers with 9.6 per cent market share.

The combined market share of Vistara, Air India and AirAsia India stood at 24.7 per cent in September. Besides, Vistara also had the best on-time performance with 91 per cent of its flights arriving and departing from four key airports, Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bengaluru, on time.

In Vistara, Tata Group holds 51 per cent while in AirAsia India, it has 83.67 per cent holding. Moreover, Tata Group regained the control of Air India on January 27 this year following its privatisation.

Meanwhile, teams of the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) and aviation regulator DGCA will be probing the helicopter crash near Kedarnath in Uttarakhand that killed seven people on Tuesday, according to a senior official.

The operator of the ill-fated helicopter - Aryan Aviation - had come under the regulatory scanner and was fined Rs 5 lakh recently by the DGCA for certain violations.

The senior DGCA official said the teams of AAIB and DGCA have already left for the site.

It is an accident as per the classification of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), and AAIB will be probing the case, the official added. The DGCA will also be investigating the accident.