Flight delays surge in August, affecting over 74,000 passengers
What's the story
Domestic airlines in India carried 1.29 crore passengers in August, a slight decline from the 1.31 crore passengers they transported during the same month last year, according to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). However, this number is an improvement over July's figures when domestic air traffic stood at 1.26 crore passengers. The DGCA data further revealed that a whopping 74,381 passengers were affected by flight delays in August, while 36,362 passengers faced flight cancellations.
Market dynamics
IndiGo's market share dips while Air India Group gains ground
In August, IndiGo's domestic market share fell to 64.2% from July's 65.2%. Meanwhile, the Air India Group (which includes Air India and Air India Express) saw an increase in its market share from 26.2% to 27.3% during the same period. Akasa Air's market share also dipped slightly from 5.5% in July to 5.4% in August while SpiceJet remained stable at a modest 2%.
Performance review
Alliance Air experiences drop in market share
Government-owned Alliance Air witnessed a dip in its market share from 0.4% in July to 0.3% in August. Star Air and Fly91 maintained their market shares at 0.5% and 0.2%, respectively. The DGCA also reported that scheduled domestic airlines received a total of 1,407 passenger-related complaints with an average of about 1.09 complaints per every 10,000 passengers carried in August alone.