India's aviation market is poised to become world's third largest globally, in terms of domestic air traffic. As per the latest DGCA data, passengers carried by domestic airlines during January-February stood at 2.46 crore as against 1.41 crore during the corresponding period of the previous year, reporting an annual growth of 74.50 per cent, and monthly growth of 56.82 per cent. Nearly 1.21 crore passengers were carried by the domestic airlines in February 2023 as against 76.96 lakh during the same period last year. Among the domestic traffic, Indian budget air carrier IndiGo holds more than 50 percent market share and is the leader for the longest of time.


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In February 2023, IndiGo flew way ahead of the other airlines, retaining its number one spot with a market share of 55.9 per cent share in the domestic aviation market. The airline was far ahead of Air India and Vistara, Tata Group airlines that secured second and third slot with a market share of 8.9 per cent and 8.7 per cent, respectively. As per the latest data issued for February 2023 by aviation regulator DGCA, IndiGo carried 67.42 lakh passengers during the month, followed by Air India (10.76 lakh) and Vistara (10.53 lakh).


While Air India and Vistara will soon merge to become one airline, the market share is not expected to exceed more than 20 percent, which means IndiGo will retain its crown in the coming years. Another budget carrier, GoAir with 9.63 lakh air passengers had a market share of 8 per cent in February 2023, while SpiceJet carried 8.58 lakh passengers with 7.1 per cent market share in the month under review, claiming the fourth and the fifth spot respectively. 


In February 2023, a total of 359 passenger-related complaints were received by the scheduled domestic airlines reported IANS. The number of complaints per 10,000 passengers carried for the month of February has been around 0.3 per cent. As per the DGCA data, the overall cancellation rate of scheduled domestic airlines in February stood at 0.25 per cent. The main reasons for cancellation have been identified as weather, technical or operational issues.

The DGCA data said that maximum complaints in February were received by Alliance Air (4.1/10,000 passengers), followed by Flybig (1.6/10,000 passengers), Air India (1.4/10,000 passengers) and SpiceJet (0.6/10,000 passengers). The major reasons for complaints were flight problems (28.4 per cent), baggage (26.2 per cent) and refund (12 per cent).