NEW DELHI: Last month saw 21 lakh flying within the country — 82.3% less than the 1.2 crore domestic flyers in July 2020. Schedule domestic air travel in India was allowed to resume at a one-third capacity from May 25, after a two-month suspension. Corona had started disrupting air travel from late February and consequently India has seen 3.7 crore passengers in the January-July 2020 period — down 55% from 8.2 crore in same period last year, according to DGCA data.
Last month saw two things happen for the first time in domestic market share — Air India’s domestic market share reduce to a single digit percentage point (in terms of passengers carried) and market leader IndiGo soaring past the 60% (at 60.4%). SpiceJet is the second biggest Indian airline (by domestic market share) at 15.7% with AI a distant third at 9.1%. The two Tata JV airlines — Vistara (4.2%) and AirAsia India (6.2%) — together accounted for 10.4% domestic market share in July. Operating minuscule operations, Wadia group’s GoAir saw just 3.8% market share last month.
Being a lean travel month, among “big” airlines SpiceJet domestic flights had the highest aircraft occupancy in July at 70%, followed by IndiGo (60.2%); AirAsia India (56.2%); Vistara (53.1%); GoAir (50.5) and AI (45.5%).
