The continuing national lockdown due to coronavirus pandemic has taken a toll on domestic air passenger traffic. As per March data released by aviation regulator DGCA, the domestic passenger traffic fell by 33.06 per cent to 77.62 lakh as compared to the same month last year. All commercial passenger flights have been suspended in India since the national lockdown was announced on March 22.
According to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) data, passenger load factors of all airlines in India decreased significantly in March as compared to February. Passenger load factor measures the seat capacity utilisation of the airline.
“The passenger load factor in the month of March 2020 has shown a sharp decline due to suspension of air operations because of COVID-19 outbreak,” the DGCA explained.
In February this year, the rise in the number of domestic air passengers was 8.9 per cent to 1.23 crore when compared with the figures of the corresponding month in 2019.
According to the DGCA data, IndiGo maintained its lead position with 48.9 per cent share of the domestic passenger market in March 2020.
SpiceJet was at number two as its market share increased from 15.3 per cent in February to 16 per cent in March, as per the data.
The market share of Air India, GoAir, AirAsia India and Vistara was 10.8 per cent, 9.9 per cent, 7.6 per cent and 5.9 per cent