Air Passenger Growth Rebounds In May

Airline passenger traffic in India picked up in the usually strong holiday month of May, even as Jet Airways (India) Ltd. halted operations.

Air traffic grew 3 percent over last year as operators added capacity. Nearly 1.2 crore passengers flew in the month, according to data provided by Directorate General of Civil Aviation.

Passenger growth was led by GoAir, InterGlobe Aviation Ltd. and SpiceJet Ltd.

• GoAir’s passenger growth was 31 percent—the highest in the industry.
• IndiGo’s passenger growth stood at 23 percent—the highest in five months.
• Vistara’s passenger growth was 23 percent—a 10-month high.
• AirAsia Bhd.’s passenger growth was 18.5 percent—highest in two months.
• Air India’s passenger growth stood at 9 percent—at a nine-month high.

The Ajay Singh-led SpiceJet’s passenger growth rose to a 20-month high. Its market share was also the highest in over four years.

Passenger load factor, a measure of capacity utilisation, declined for all major airlines compared with last year due to excess capacity addition. The metric rose only for state-run Air India and Wadia Group-controlled GoAir.

SpiceJet managed to report a load factor of over 90 percent for the 49th consecutive month but declined over last year for the 12th straight month. IndiGo’s PLF fell for the tenth consecutive month, albeit at a slower rate.

How the airlines stacked up in terms of passenger load factor in May:

• IndiGo—fell 10 bps to 90.9 percent.
• SpiceJet—down 90 bps to 93.9 percent.
• Vistara—10 bps decline to 85.6 percent.
• AirAsia—down 190 bps to 87.8 percent.
• GoAir—rose 410 bps to 93.9 percent.
• Air India—improved by 370 bps to 85 percent.

InterGlobe Aviation Ltd.-operated IndiGo continues to gain the most from Jet Airways’ shutdown, with the low-cost airline grabbing as much seven percentage points—or 700 basis points—of market share from India’s oldest private airline in the last eight months. SpiceJet gained about three percentage points.