Domestic air traffic in April dipped 4.5% year-on-year — the sharpest decline in at least five years — owing to complete grounding of Jet Airways.
The passenger count slumped to 10.99 million during April 2019 from 11.51 million exactly a year ago, according to the monthly passenger data released by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Wednesday. Jet, which possessed a fleet of 119 aircraft at the end of December 2018, faced regular groundings since February this year because of non-payment of rentals to lessors before suspending all operations on April 17 as lenders refused to provide any emergency funding.
The huge dip in domestic capacities propelled IndiGo to its highest-ever market share of 49.9%. Budget carrier SpiceJet was also operating with less aircraft as it was forced to pull down 12 Boeing 737 MAX over safety concerns on March 12.
