New Delhi: The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on June 15 released data that showed India’s domestic air traffic in May rose by 36 per cent in comparison to April of last year, carrying 1.32 crore passengers in May.

For the year 2023, domestic air traffic in May saw a hike by 2.5 per cent against April when airlines carried 1.29 crore passengers. After Covid-19, air traffic witnessed a considerable amount of jump seeing only 1.22 crore passengers flew with domestic airlines in May 2019.

Ailrines benefitted as GoFirst drowned!

After the cash-strapped airline, GoFirst stopped all its operations on May 2, the market share of India’s largest airline, Indigo, hiked by 390 basis points in May.

Indigo’s market share for May stood at 61.3 per cent, after rising 70 basis points in April, 90 basis points in March and 130 basis points in February.

The budget-friendly carrier flew 81.10 lakh passengers in May.

Air India captured the second position as being the largest domestic carrier in May, gaining a market share of 9.4 per cent, flying 12.44 lakh passengers during the period.

Earlier, Air india saw its market share going down from 9.2 per cent in January to 8.6 per cent in April, falling 20-30 basis points every month. However, as Go First began witnessing its downfall, Air India was able to view its market share taking a hike once again.

In terms of Vistara, the airline saw its market share rise by 30 basis points to 9 per cent, the airline carried 11.95 lakh passengers in May.

A huge part of the market share of Go Grist comprising 6.4 per cent carrying 8.29 lakh passengers in April was taken over by IndiGo last month, as the latter flew 7.04 lakh more passengers in May in comparison to April.

Passenger load factor, or the occupancy rate, of various airlines such as SpiceJet, Vistara, IndiGo, Air India and AirAsia India came at 94.8 per cent, 93.2 per cent, 91.5 per cent, 90.1 per cent, and 92.8 per cent respectively in May.