E-Paper
SpiceJet shunts AI from 3rd place
The ailing Air India (AI) has been displaced by low-cost carrier SpiceJet as the country's third-largest domestic airline by market share. At present, there are six domestic scheduled carriers in the country.
The ailing Air India (AI) has been displaced by low-cost carrier SpiceJet as the country's third-largest domestic airline by market share. At present, there are six domestic scheduled carriers in the country.
AI's domestic market share fell from 17.9% in March to 17.6% in April. SpiceJet's market share increased from 17.1% to 17.7% during the same period.
The struggling national carrier fared poorly on many counts, when compared to other airlines. AI's international operations have been badly affected since May 7, with a section of the pilots striking work. This is the fourth strike by pilots since May last year. AI had the highest cancellation rate of 5.2% in April while the overall cancellation rate of all airlines combined was 1.5%. Low-cost carrier IndiGo suffered the least number of cancellations at 0.1%, while Kingfisher Airlines (KFA) had a cancellation rate of 3.3%.
AI's on-time performance (OTP) at six metro airports was the lowest at 79.7%, while IndiGo had the best at 86.8%. AI had the lowest passenger load factor of 70.5%, while IndiGo had the highest at 82%.
Jet Airways, along with its subsidiary JetLite, continued its domination over the domestic market with a market share of 28.2%. It was followed by IndiGo, which had a market share of 23.8%. GoAir had a market share of 7.3% while that of KFA fell from 6.4% to 5.4%.
Air traffic grew by 7.15%, with over 2 crore people travelling by air between January and April this year, as compared to 1.9 crore that travelled during the corresponding period of the previous year.
As many as 890 passenger complaints were received in April.
