Around 1.05 crore domestic passengers travelled by air in November, 17.03 per cent higher than the 89.85 lakh who travelled the month before, the country’s aviation regulator said. While IndiGo carried 57.06 lakh passengers in November, a 54.3 per cent share of the domestic market, SpiceJet flew 10.78 lakh passengers, accounting for a 10.3 per cent share of the market, according to the data shared by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).

Go First (previously known as GoAir), Air India, Vistara, AirAsia India and Alliance Air carried 11.56 lakh, 9.98 lakh, 7.93 lakh, 6.23 lakh and 1.20 lakh passengers, respectively, in November, the data showed.

The occupancy rate for SpiceJet was 86.7 per cent in November, the DGCA noted. The November occupancy rate for Air India was 82 per cent, followed by IndiGo (80.5 per cent), Go First (78.2 per cent) and AirAsia India 74.6 per cent, it added.

The aviation sector has been significantly impacted due to the travel restrictions imposed in India and other countries in view of the pandemic. India resumed domestic passenger flights on May 25 last year after a gap of two months due to coronavirus.

The DGCA data mentioned that in November 2021, Vistara had the best on-time performance of 84.4 per cent at four metro airports — Bengaluru, Delhi, Hyderabad and Mumbai.

On achieving the best on-time performance in November, Vistara said, “At Vistara, we try to consistently enhance efficiency across all our operations to ensure a delightful experience for our customers.” “Operational excellence is one of the key tenets of our strategy and maintaining On-Time-Performance is one of the key parameters to measure it,” the airline added.

AirAsia India and IndiGo were at the second and third positions at these four airports in November with 82.4 per cent and 80.5 per cent on-time performance respectively, the DGCA said.

During the last two years, all airlines in India have opted for cost-reducing measures such as pay cuts, leave without pay and layoffs in order to tide over the coronavirus-induced crisis.