Air traffic up 13% on fests, Indigo tops

In a separate release, the ministry said that Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh has asked Air India to further improve its passenger load factor and on-time performance while implementing various customer friendly initiatives.

The carrier has undertaken measures like new fare schemes, improved aircraft utilisation and stopping free allowance for excess baggage in its flights, the release said.

Its market share has risen continuously in past six months from 16.2 per cent in May to 20.8 per cent in October.

Among others, Spice Jet carried 8.69 lakh passengers while Jet Airways had 8.24 lakh passengers (18.1 per cent market share), JetLite flew three lakh passengers (6.6 per cent) and Go Air carried 3.47 lakh.

However, the total number of passengers between January to October 2012 fell 2.47 per cent to 483.94 lakh, from 496.19 lakh during the corresponding period of the previous year.

All the airlines together had seen their total traffic decline by about eight per cent or 3.51 lakh passengers during the month of September.

The country's newest scheduled carrier Air Mantra of Religare group, which is operating only two small 17-seater aircraft since July 23 between Amritsar and Chandigarh, flew one hundred travellers in October.