BENGALURU: Domestic airlines across the country carried 556.84 lakh passengers from January to November 2020 compared to 1311.54 lakh passengers in the corresponding period last year, registering an annual growth of - 57.54%. Of this figure, 63.54 lakh passengers flew in November alone.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) today released the air traffic report for November based on data submitted by nine scheduled airlines.
"The passenger load factor in the month of November has shown some recovery due to increased demand after opening of lockdown and onset of festive season," the report said. November's figures of 63.54 lakh fliers is an improvement over its preceding months.
October had 52.71 lakh passengers while September had 39.43 lakh, reveal past data. However, when compared to November 2019 which had 129.47 lakh passengers, the monthly growth has shown a dip of 50.93%.
Referring to the statistics for November, DGCA Director General Arun Kumar told TNIE, "The numbers are encouraging. With COVID calming down and the vaccine expected shortly, we expect this trend to hold and improve further."
Of the 556.84 lakh fliers, private carriers carried 89.1% while Air India which carried 60.81 lakh passengers had only a share of 10.9%. Spicejet had the maximum passenger load factor (percentage of seats occupied) last month at 77.7% with IndiGo coming next at 74%.
A total of 394 complaints have been filed by passengers against airlines for November with grievances relating to refund of ticket fare dominating them, the data showed. 62.4% of overall issues related to refunds while flight problems come second with 15% of complaints.
For the third consecutive months, issues pertaining to refunds dominate the woes of fliers. On the refund issue, the DGCA chief said, "Airlines have almost done the refunds and the leftovers have to be done by March 31, 2021. We are closely monitoring it and shall ensure that it happens."
An average of 0.62 complaints have been received for every 10,000 passengers last month. Of this, Air India has mainly been at the receiving end with 4.5 complaints per 10,000 passengers while Vistara has received the minimum number of complaints at 0.1.
A total of 287 passengers were denied boarding on flights by airlines with Spicejet not permitting the maximum number of 195 fliers and Air India coming second (49 fliers). A total of 14,062 passengers were affected due to cancellations with the maximum number affected being GoAir passengers at 9407 fliers followed by 2073 Spicejet fliers.