According to data from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, domestic airlines carried a record thirteen million passengers in the Month of March 2023, an increase of nearly 11% from the corresponding months in 2018 and 2019.
The figures showed that throughout the month, air passenger traffic increased by 21% from a year ago and by 7% from February. According to data provided today by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), domestic airlines in India saw a gain in passengers of 51.7% year over year between January and March 2023.
How many Passengers were carried?
The airlines transported 128.93 lakh passengers in March 2023 compared to 106.19 lakh passengers in March 2022, a 21.41% increase month over month. From January through March 2023, the airlines carried 375.04 lakh passengers, up from 247.23 lakhs during the same time last year.
Performance of Indigo, Vistara, Air India, Akasa, etc:
A total of 73.17 lakh passengers were carried in March 2023, making private airline IndiGo the carrier with the greatest market player at 56.8%. Vistara with 11.49 lakh passengers came in second, followed by Air India with 11.39 lakh passengers.
According to the DGCA, SpiceJet had the Highest Passenger Load Factor (PLF) in March, with 92.3%, followed by Vistara and Go First at 91.6% and 90.2%, respectively.
The newest airline in India, Akasa Air, outperformed its more established rivals in terms of punctuality, coming in first with an on-time performance record of 94.2 percent, followed by IndiGo at 92 percent and Vistara at 83.7%.
Air India held down the position of fourth with 82.1%, followed by Alliance Air (69.1%), AirAsia India (76.6%), and SpiceJet (63.6%). GoFIRST had the worst performance, scoring 49.2%.
Unexpected travel expenses and How to avoid them?
The number of complaints received:
The scheduled domestic airlines have received 347 passenger-related complaints in total during the month of March 2023. In March 2023, there were roughly 0.27 complaints for every 10,000 passengers carried.
With continuously increasing air demand, India’s aviation sector has picked up the pace, forcing rating agency ICRA to change the sector’s outlook from “negative” to “stable.”
Future predictions:
Following a 55-60% increase in FY2023, ICRA predicted last month that domestic passenger traffic would expand by 8-13% in FY2024 to reach 145-150 million, which is significantly more than it was before Covid. Domestic passenger traffic in the first ten months of FY2023 increased by 66.2% YoY to 111 million, barely 8.3% behind pre-Covid levels.
Losses Airline Industry suffered:
Gen. VK Singh (ret.), Minister of State in the Ministry of CA, stated last month that the sector sustained losses totalling Rs. 11,658 crores during FY 2021-22. The total losses in the prior Covid-affected years, FY21 and FY20, were INR12,479 crore and INR 4,770 crore, respectively.
Government support:
He claimed that over the course of the next five years, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) as well as other airport developers plan to invest roughly INR 98,000 crore in the airport sector, among other things, for the expansion and renovation of current terminals, the construction of new terminals, and the strengthening of runways.
The Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS), whose scope has been expanded to give credit support to these businesses up to 100% of their total credit due, subject to a maximum of Rs 1,500 crore per borrower, has also been approved by the government, according to him.
