NEW DELHI: Low-cost private airline IndiGo, with 31 per cent market share, continued to be the leader of the Indian skies, followed by Jet Airways and its subsidiaries which garnered 21.7 per cent of the market and state-run carrier Air India was third with an 18.4 per cent share of the market in the year that just went by as per the latest data released on Monday by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).
According to the data, domestic air traffic grew by 9.7 per cent last year compared to 2013, driven by a the fare wars that the airlines have launched to woo passengers.
Together Indian carriers carried 673.83 lakh passengers in the previous year as against 614.26 lakh flown by them in 2013.
Of this, private airlines carried 549.58 lakh passengers or 81.6% of the total passenger traffic. Air India transported 124.25 lakh passengers during the reporting period.
IndiGo continued to be the market leader in the domestic market, and flown 214,25 lakh passengers during the January-December 2014 period and cornered 31.8% market share in this period. Naresh Goyal-owned Jet Airways together with its subsidiary JetLite clocked 21.7 per cent market share, by carrying 146.65 lakh passenger in the reporting period.
Air India was third with a market share of 18.4 per cent (after IndiGo and Jet Airways and JetLite combined) while budget carrier SpiceJet cornered 17.4% of the total domestic passenger traffic in 2014, having flown 117.40 lakh passengers during the period. Another budget airline GoAir managed 9.2% of the market pie as it transported 62.02 lakh passengers in 2014.
The data showed that on a monthly basis domestic passenger traffic grew by 15.29% to 64.40 lakh passengers in December last year as compared to 55.86 lakh passengers flown by the Indian carriers in 2013. All seven domestic carriers including AirAsia India and regional airline Air Coasta also reported a higher seat factor in December 2014 as compared to November on account of holiday season, according to DGCA data. (With agency inputs)