Domestic air traffic recorded a 20% month-on-month growth in February, which saw a sharp drop due to the Omicron variant of COVID-19.
India Airlines carried a total of 76.96 lakh passengers in February compared to 64.08 lakh passengers in January.
Domestic air travel has been on the mend since July last year, posting a steady increase through December, nearly quadrupling over that period. But in January, all gains were halved after states imposed new restrictions amid rising Omicron cases.
Airlines also saw a significant improvement in average seat occupancy (or passenger load factor). SpiceJet saw 89.1% utilization, Vistara 87.1%, GoFirst 87% and IndiGo 85%. This was an improvement of more than 20 percentage points for most airlines.
IndiGo saw its market share decline slightly, falling from 55.5% in January to 51.3% in February. Vistara saw a significant increase in its market share, rising from 7.5% to 9.7% over the same comparable period. Air India’s market share also increased from 10.2% to 11.1%.
