IndiGo loses out to AI on seat occupancy, slips on punctuality too in Dec

Air India managed to fill just a wee bit more of its aircrafts than market leader IndiGo in December but JetLite had the maximum occupancy across its flights. Not only did IndiGo get left behind in seat occupancy, the airline was third in terms of on-time operations last month as SpiceJet and combined operations of Jet Airways and JetLite registered more on-time flights. Despite more passengers taking to the skies last month and numerous discounts by all airlines, not a single one managed to fill 80 percent of its aircrafts. So every domestic flight had at least two in ten seats empty.

Now that SpiceJet and IndiGo have announced substantial reduction in advance purchase fares this morning and AI likely to follow suit, will they be able to fill more seats in the current quarter?

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There is no way of knowing how market share of the domestic carriers altered last month or for the full year 2013 since the data released by regulator DGCA this evening did not divulge number of passengers carried by individual airlines. This is a clear departure from the past where the number of passengers carried by each domestic airline was shared each month. Is the regulator trying to protect private airlines from minute public scrutiny? The data only revealed that government owned Air India held just a little less than a fifth of the domestic market in December and has maintained its grip on every fifth domestic flyer for virtually the entire 2013 calendar year.

The state owned airline may have trumped IndiGo in seat occupancy but in two other parameters it continued to lag. SpiceJet had the maximum number of its flights on time last month, beating traditional leader in punctual flying - IndiGo - also. SpiceJet’s OTP was 82.2 percent which means almost 2 in 10 flights were still delayed. But Air India held the dubious distinction of having more than 3 in 10 flights delayed in December. In the past, the airline has said overall OTP suffers because of extensive airline operations in the North East and other stations where inclement weather hinders on-time operations. But frequent snags in the Dreamliners and some aircrafts getting grounded for repairs could also bring down the overall OTP statistic. But why is IndiGo’s OTP slipping? The airline has traditionally held the best on-time performance record but in December it was at 80.2 percent, which is behind SpiceJet and combined operations of Jet Airways and JetLite.

The DGCA data also shows that after a dismal 2012, last year saw airlines adding capacities as more flyers took to the skies. Between January and December 2013, domestic air passenger growth was almost 4.5 percent as 614.25 lakh people flew against 588.19 lakh in the previous calendar year.