Domestic air traffic highest in Oct-Dec; IndiGo pips AI

New Delhi, Jan 18 (PTI) Domestic air traffic continued onits robust growth path this winter recording the highestnumber of passengers carried between October and December lastyear, as leading no-frill carrier IndiGo again pipped AirIndia for the third place in terms of travellers flown.

The fourth quarter of 2010 registered 147.05 lakhpassengers, up from 134.78 lakh in April-June, 2010, 119.84lakh in July-September and 118.54 lakh in January-March,official figures released today showed.

While Jet Airways and its wholly-owned subsidiary JetLitetogether carried 38.13 lakh passengers, it was followed byKingfisher and Kingfisher Red combine which carried 27.81lakh.

IndiGo flew 25.89 lakh passengers taking the thirdposition, while Air India (Domestic) carried 25.42 lakhtravellers. These airlines were followed by SpiceJet with20.01 and GoAir with 9.79 lakh, the figures showed.

In December alone, these airlines together flew 52.13 lakhpassengers, with Jet-JetLite leading the way and Kingfisherand IndiGo following it.

In the October-December period, Jet-JetLite jointly held26 per cent of the entire domestic market share. The Jet groupwas followed by Kingfisher with 18.9 per cent, IndiGo with17.6 per cent, Air India 17.1, SpiceJet 13.6 and GoAir 6.7,the figures showed.

The highest seat factor of 93.3 per cent was bagged byIndiGo, followed by other no-frill carriers SpiceJet with87.8, GoAir with 87 per cent and JetLite with 84.8. Seatfactor is the average percentage of seats filled on eachflight.

Air India recorded the lowest seat factor at 78.8 percent, while Jet Airways recorded 80.1 and Kingfisher 85.9. PTIARC