BENGALURU: Domestic air travel across the country has shown a growth of 20.94 per cent this year compared to the ridership last year. Passengers carried by airlines from January to September 2018 touched 10.27 crore as compared to 8.49 crore passengers during the corresponding period last year, reveal statistics released by the Director General of Civil Aviation.
Thanks to the festive season, the month of September has shown an 18.95 per cent increase in domestic traffic over last month (August), the report states.
The report analyses performance of different domestic airlines during September based on data submitted by various airlines.
The airlines considered in the report were Air India (Domestic), Jet Airways (plus Jetlite), GoAir, Indigo, Spicejet, Vistara, Air Asia, Zoom Air, Air Odisha, Air Deccan and TruJet.
When it comes to on time performance at the Kempe Gowda International Airport, both Air India (87.2%) and Jet Airways (90.7%) maintain the best record when compared to their personal records at Mumbai, Delhi and Hyderabad airports.
A total of 669 passenger-related complaints have been received in September with Air Odisha and Air Deccan earning the maximum ire from passengers. This is just one complaint more than that received in August (668 complaints).
The number of complaints per 10,000 stands at 135.6 for Air Odisha while for Air Deccan it stands at 23.7.
The two airlines topped the complaint chart even last month. Among the major airlines, Air India received 1.6 complaints per 10k passengers while Jet Airways received 1.2.
The report also stated that the biggest grouse passengers had was regarding
‘Customer Service’ (27.5%) with baggage handling problems closely following it
at 26per cent.
2,157 passengers denied boarding in September
Due to various reasons, a total of 2,157 passengers were denied permission to board flights across the country in September. Jet Airways (plus Jet Lite) denied boarding to 1,157 passengers, the maximum number, while Air India came second with 922 affected. The facilities (hotel, refreshments) and compensation offered to passengers, as a result, cost the airlines totally Rs 10.42 crore. A total of 17,008 passengers across all airlines were affected due to flight cancellations and the cost borne in providing them compensation and other arrangements cost the airlines Rs 52.6 lakh.