Continuing the trend low cost carriers have posted a higher seat factor as compared to the domestic full service carriers for the month of October, according to the latest data from the ministry of civil aviation. Seat factor is the percentage of total number of seats a carrier manages to fill out of the total number of seats.
The number of passengers carried by the domestic carriers from January-October 2007 was 353.68 lakh as compared to 260.93 lakh in the corresponding period last year.
The full service carriers, including Jet, Kingfisher and Indian Airlines posted an average seat factor of 64.33% while the low cost carriers including Jet Lite, Air Deccan, Spicejet, Paramount and Go Air posted an average seat factor of 72.78%.
Wadias-promoted Go Air has posted the highest seat factor consistently since March this year closely followed by Air Deccan, which has posted the highest seat factor for the three months period before that.
Go Air?s seat factor has fallen from 77% in September to 75% in October while Air Deccan?s seat factor has risen to 74.2% in October from 70.7 in September. Indian Airlines?s seat factor has been falling consistently from 78.1% in April this year to 62.6% in October.
Paramount Airways posted the biggest rise in their seat factor, from 47.7% in September to 73.4% in October this year, the ministry data said.