Domestic air passenger traffic jumped by 20.39 percent in August standing at 52.60 lakh passengers ferried, up from 43.69 lakh carried during the corresponding month last year, data furnished by the civil aviation ministry showed.

 

 According to data furnished by the ministry, the passengers carried by domestic airlines during January-August 2013 was up 3.31 percent at 411.40 lakh from 398.22 lakh passengers in the corresponding period of last year.

 

 The passenger traffic grew by 7.25 percent in July and stood at 48.66 lakh, from 45.37 lakh passengers ferried during the corresponding month last year.

 

 The data showing upward trend in the industry was supported by exceptionally low air fares doled out by airlines under various promotion schemes, as well as three major holidays of Janmashtami, Independence Day and Id-ul-Fitr that happened during the month under review.

 

 On a month-to-month basis, the traffic increased by 8.09 percent as domestic airlines carried 52.60 lakh passengers in the month under review, up from 48.66 lakh in July, 2013.

 

 This data also showed that GoAir achieved the highest overall occupancy in the month under review at 79 percent, followed by Air India at 78.7 percent and market leader IndiGo at 76 percent.

 

 Low-cost carrier (LCC) SpiceJet's occupancy level stood at 75.8 percent, Jet Airways passenger count was at 74.9 percent and JetLite at 73.9 percent.

 

 IndiGo remained the largest domestic passenger carrier with a market share of 29.1 percent followed by Air India's domestic operations (19.9), Jet Airways (18.8), SpiceJet (17.2 percent), Go Air (8.7) and Jetlite (6.3 percent).

 

 –Indo-Asian News Service