Domestic air passenger traffic up 19% at 13.9 cr in 2018

India`s domestic air passenger traffic rose by 18.60 per cent in 2018 on a year-on-year basis to 13.90 crore, data released by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) showed on Tuesday. In December, around 1.27 crore passengers flew by domestic airlines, 12.91 per cent on a month-on-month basis.

"The passenger load factor in the month of December 2018 has increased compared to previous month primarily due to the ongoing tourist season," the DGCA report said. According to the data, budget carrier SpiceJet recorded the highest passenger load factor during the December at 92.7 per cent, followed by IndiGo at 88.9 per cent.

In terms of load factor, AirAsia came third with 88.8 per cent and GoAir was fourth with 88.5 per cent. The load factor of the national carrier Air India stood at 81.2 per cent in December.

The overall cancellation rate of scheduled domestic airlines for the month of December 2018 was 0.66 per cent. Further, during December, a total of 803 passenger-related complaints were received by the scheduled domestic airlines.

"The number of complaints per 10,000 passengers carried for the month of December 2018 has been around 0.63,a it said.