For the first time, the air travel volume breached the 10 million mark in October, clipping at a healthy 20.52% over the same period a year ago. For the reporting month, the carriers flew as much as 10.45 million passengers. The combined passenger traffic of all airlines was 8.67 million in October 2016, according to the data released by the regulator DGCA. IndiGo Airlines continued to lead the aviation market in October by flying 41.3 lakh passengers, substantially higher than 36.65 lakh passenger carried by the airline in September. The market share of the airline during the month increased to 39.5% from 38.2% in the previous month. On the other hand, passengers carried by national carrier Air India increased to 13.6 lakh from 12.9 lakh. Another full service carrier Jet Airways has also reported an increase in the number of passengers carried, from 14.7 lakh to 15.8 lakh. The market share of Air India stood at 13.1%, which is slightly lower than the month before, while the same for Jet Airways decreased to 15.2% from 15.4% in August. SpiceJet, the country’s second-largest low-cost carrier, reported a 13.1% market share, which is lower than 13.8% during the month before, but passengers carried by it increased to 13.64 lakh, compared with 13.20 lakh. AirAsia reported a 4.3% market share and carried 4.5 lakh passengers. Full service carrier Vistara’s market share marginally declined to 3.5%, while the number of passengers carried remained flat at 3.7 lakh.

In terms of passenger load factor (PLF), Spice Jet continued to dominate with 93.7% occupancy, which has decreased from 94.2% in September. Mumbai-based Go Air saw its flight occupancy decline to 87.6%, compared with 88.5% in the month before. IndiGo’s PLF increased to 87.3% occupancy from 85.2% in September. Air India’s occupancy rate fell to 76.6% from 78.6% while the same for Jet Airways remained flat at 80.5% during the same period. “This is the 31st month-in-a-row that SpiceJet has flown with load factors in excess of 90% – a feat unparalleled in the global aviation history. We have also clocked the best on-time performance at key metros such as Bengaluru and Mumbai which speaks of the operational precision and efforts our team has put in,” said a spokesperson of SpiceJet. In terms of on-time performance (OTP), Indigo leads the chart with 83.9%, while SpiceJet comes second at 83.3%. Air India came third at 77.4%.