For the first time, the country has achieved a great record in the number of domestic air passengers. Last Sunday i.e. November 17, the number of domestic air passengers crossed 5 lakh, which is a new record. This reflects strong travel demand during the festival and wedding season. According to the latest data from the Ministry of Civil Aviation, airlines carried 5,05,412 passengers on Sunday (November 17) and the number of flights rose to 3,173.
Let us tell you that this was the first time that the number of domestic air passengers crossed the 5 lakh mark in a day. “Domestic travel has seen strong demand during the festival season. On November 17, the number of passengers flying daily crossed 5 lakh.
Gaurav Patwari, vice president (air category) at travel portal Cleartrip, said, “The increased passenger movement is mainly due to strong demand from festivals and the beginning of the wedding season. “We expect the strong demand to continue during the winter season as well.” The occupancy of flights operated by the main scheduled airlines exceeded 90 percent on Sunday.
However, several factors have impacted the on-time performance (OTP) of airlines in recent times. IndiGo’s OTP on Sunday was 74.2 per cent, followed by Alliance Air at 71 per cent and Akasa Air at 67.6 per cent. Among other airlines, SpiceJet and Air India had OTPs of 66.1 per cent and 57.1 per cent respectively. In October, aviation regulator DGCA had said Indian airlines would operate 25,007 flights every week from 124 airports on the winter schedule starting October 27.
The number of flights in the current summer schedule has increased by three percent from 24,275 departures per week from 125 airports. The number of flights increased by 5.37 percent compared to the winter schedule of 2023. The winter schedule is from October 27, 2024 to March 29, 2025.
