Flag carrier Air India’s (AI) turnaround plans may not be meeting all the financial targets yet, but its approval rating among domestic flyers is definitely going up. In October, the carrier led the industry in terms of passenger load factor at 83.5%,  the highest in its history as per DGCA data. In market share, it came in second, displacing low-cost carrier Spicejet.

Rohit Nandan, Air India CMD, said, “I feel this is because of strong showing by our commercial team as well as due to the successful implementation of customer service improvement plan. The load factor consists of J and Y (premium) class. If one was to just look at economy class it would be as high as 88-90%”.

This year, the highest load factor AI had seen was in May at 79.5%, and for most months it was in the 70-77% range. Not only did AI see a sharp jump in October, it was the only one among the large airlines to post growth in load factor. The closest was Spicejet at 80.1%, with the much smaller Air Costa at 78.1% and market leader IndiGo at 76.8%. Jet Airways stood at 73.1%, Go Air at 72.6% and AirAsia at 76.2%.

S Venkat, director (finance) at AI, told FE the airline’s strategy to use more of its new Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft on domestic routes is showing results. However, the carrier will avoid irrational discounts to maintain margins.

“AI has been adopting a pro- active strategy of maintaining a balance between its yield and load factor. The domestic yield for AI is between Rs 5.50 and Rs 6 per passenger km. There is no point in going for irrational pricing as input costs are constant. We will continue to closely monitor the market and maintain pricing at levels that are reasonable and rational as well as bring in a good load factors. We r also planning to connect more metros through 787, providing the passenger with ultimate comfort,” he said.

An aviation analyst added, “Most airlines reported a drop in load factor because of the addition of extra flights for the festive season to increase frequencies.” In terms of market share, AI came back to the second spot after four months with a 19.5% share — it was the runner-up last in May with an 18.6% share.

However, on some fronts, AI fared the worst. On-time Performance was lowest among the major players at 63.3% while Indigo had a 92.8% OTP. AI also had the highest number of passengers affected due to flight cancellations and delays.