Significant decrease in passengers’ complaints

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation’s Traffic Report for March 2023 states that the passengers carried by domestic airlines during January – March 2023 were 375.04 lakhs as against 247.23 lakhs during the Jan – March 2022 period, thereby registering an annual growth of 51.70 % and monthly growth of 21.41 %.

The comparison of data with March-2019 is as follows:

Jan.-March 2019	Jan.-March 2023	Change
354.53 Lakhs	375.04 Lakhs	20.51 Lakhs (+5.8%)

Passenger Complaints:  There has been a significant decrease in passengers’ complaints and an increase in the resolution of complaints:

• Complaints have decreased in March 2023 (347 Complaints) vis-à-vis March 2019 (1684 Complaints) 
• Resolution of complaints has increased to 99%(approx.) in March 2023 compared to 93.5% for March 2019.
• Flight Problem – 60.0%, Baggage – 16.3%, Refund – 11.8% were major reasons for complaint in 2019 whereas for March 2023 major reasons included Flight Problem – 38.6%, Baggage – 22.2%, Refund – 11.5%, Others – 11.5%

Passenger Load Factor- Comparison with March 2019 vis-à-vis March 2023

It has been observed that Vistara, Air India, Air Asia, and Star Air have shown an increase in PLF in March 2023 vis-à vis March-2019 whereas Indigo, SpiceJet, and Go Air have decreased.

Airlines	March 2019	March 2023
Air India	80.8	85.1
SpiceJet	93.0	92.3
Go Air	91.4	90.2
IndiGo	86.0	84.0
Air Asia	87.5	88.6
Vistara	86.8	91.6
Star Air	53.8	74.1

Market share of Scheduled Domestic Airlines: The reports state that Indigo, Vistara, and Air Asia have shown an increase in their Market Share in March 2023 vis-à-vis March-2019 whereas Air India, SpiceJet, GoAir have shown a decrease.

Airlines	Jan-March 2019		Jan.-March 2023
	Pax carried	Market Share	Pax carried	Market Share
Air India	45.01	12.7	33.70	9.0
Jet Airways	31.61	8.9	–	–
Jet Lite	5.08	1.4	–	–
SpiceJet	48.05	13.6	25.99	6.9
Go Air	32.63	9.2	29.11	7.8
Indigo	156.93	44.3	209.07	55.7
Air Asia	19.37	5.5	27.52	7.3
Vistara	14.13	4.0	33.07	8.8
Trujet	1.63	0.5	–	–
Star Air	0.07	0.0	0.49	0.1
Alliance Air	–	–	4.10	1.1
Akasa Air	–	–	11.38	3.0
Flybig	–	–	0.56	0.2

On-Time Performance (OTP)-scheduled domestic airlines: OTP for most airlines indicates a decrease in comparison to March 2019 however, Indigo and Air India have improved their OTP. OTP of scheduled domestic airlines has been computed for four metro airports viz. Bangalore, Delhi, Hyderabad, and Mumbai, and the comparison between 2019 and 2023 is as follows:

Airlines		March 2019	March 2023
Go Air		95.2	49.2
Vistara		91.9	83.7
Air Asia		91.9	76.6
IndiGo		89.5	92.0
Jet Airways+Jetlite		84.5	–
SpiceJet		82.9	63.6
Air India		69.0	82.1
Akasa Air			94.2
Alliance Air		–	69.1

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