Shifting Skies: Is Air India Gaining Ground While IndiGo Loses Share?

Synopsis: November saw strong domestic travel, where Air India’s share rose to 26.7% with PLF at 87.5%, while IndiGo held 63.6% with PLF of 88.7%. Other carriers also grew, boosting overall demand and utilisation.

This November airline data highlights changes in market share, Passenger Load Factor, and performance efficiency. Air India gained market share and improved passenger loads, IndiGo remained the largest carrier with strong volumes, while SpiceJet and Akasa showed mixed trends.

Market Share of the Airlines

In November, India’s domestic air travel market showed clear signs of stronger demand. Air India improved its position, with its market share rising to 26.7% from 25.7% in October. This indicates that more passengers chose Air India, likely due to better connectivity, improved operations, or increased capacity. The airline is gradually strengthening its presence and becoming a stronger competitor in the domestic market.

IndiGo’s reduction in market share to 63.6% from 65.6% does not reveal that the airline is having a poor performance. Instead, it demonstrates that the other airlines experienced greater growth in traffic than IndiGo during the month. IndiGo still has almost 2 of every 3 domestically flown passengers, showing its continued dominance, and competition is slowly growing.

With a market capitalisation of Rs. 1,97,410 cr, the shares of Interglobe Aviation Ltd closed at Rs. 5,106.45 per share, down from its previous close of Rs. 5,108.95 per share.

Akasa Air’s market share fell to 4.7% from 5.2%, which means it carried fewer passengers compared to October. However, this decline in share does not reflect weak demand. In contrast, SpiceJet showed a recovery, with its market share rising sharply to 3.7% from 2.6%, suggesting improved operations, better aircraft availability, or increased passenger confidence.

With a market capitalisation of Rs. 4,264 cr, the shares of Spicejet Ltd closed at Rs. 30.17 per share, up from its previous close of Rs. 29.89 per share.

Passenger Load Factor 

The Passenger Load Factor (PLF), which reflects the airline passenger airplanes’ occupancy rate, has increased substantially for all airlines in November. For Air India, the PLF improved to 87.5% from 77.3%, demonstrating the airline’s capacity utilisation improvement. IndiGo saw an increase from 82.4% to 88.7%.

Akasa Air had the highest PLF in November at 93.8%, indicating that almost all of its capacity was sold, despite its relatively low market share. SpiceJet saw its PLF increase to 87.7%, which was an indication of the revived demand for airline travel and improvements in operational efficiencies.

Overall, based on the numbers in November, there was a marked increase in passenger air travel within domestic markets, signifying increased demand for flight services and larger capacity utilisation of the operating fleets. Even though the market shares of the airline companies changed in terms of market share in the month of November, the substantial increase in handled passenger load factor suggests that airlines operated at greater capacity than in prior months, with higher numbers of passengers on flights.

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