NEW DELHI: Amidst the reports of slowdown gripping various sectors, the number of domestic air-passengers has shown a steady decline in the last four months.
Indian airlines carried 117.93 lakh passengers in August, down from 121.87 lakh passengers in May.
The data released by the aviation regulator DGCA on Thursday showed that the number of domestic air-passengers in last few months saw some rise when compared with last year.
The DGCA said that passengers carried during Jan-Aug, 2019 were 943.58 lakh as against 913.95 lakh during the corresponding period of the previous year, registering an annual growth of 3.24 per cent and monthly growth of 3.87 per cent.
The year-on-year monthly growth in a number of air-passengers in July was 3.01 per cent and 6.19 per cent in June. The aviation sector suffered a major jolt after the shutdown of Jet Airways.
The year-on-year monthly growth was -4.5 per cent in April, but it rose to 2.79 per cent in May. Air-passengers volume in May was 121.87 lakh and down to 120.25 lakh in June, 119.05 lakh in July and 117.93 lakh in August. But, corresponding data of last year show that there was no steady trend.
In August, IndiGo carried 55.41 lakh passengers, SpiceJet 18.34 lakh, Air India 15.15 lakh, Go Air 13.91 lakh, Air Asia 7.63 lakh and Vistara 6.84 lakh.
IndiGo’s market share was 47 per cent versus 47.8 per cent month-on-month while SpiceJet’s was unchanged at 15.5 per cent.
Air India’s market share increased marginally to 12.8 per cent compared to 12.4 per cent month-on-month.
Also, 760 passenger-related complaints were registered by domestic airlines.
AI meet: GoM discusses modalities for sale
A Group of Ministers (GoM) on Thursday met to work out modalities for the sale of Air India.
“I am not in a position to make an announcement. Please allow the process to move forward. However, it was a productive meeting where all issues concerned were discussed. The process will commence now,” Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri told reporters after the meeting.