SpiceJet snatches No 3 slot from Air India in April

Mumbai: Despite a marginal improvement in the seat factor, national carrier Air India (AI) has lost its market share in April, helping low-cost airline SpiceJet to become the third-largest airline in the month with a market share of 17.7 per cent, according to the latest data from the sectoral regulator DGCA.

The fall in the market share of AI is significant as the national carrier has seen an improvement in its seat factor from 68.9 to 70.5 per cent in the reporting month.

Media baron Kalanithi Maran-owned SpiceJet had 17.1 per cent market share in March.

The fall in the market share of AI is significant as the national carrier has seen an improvement in its seat factor.

The Chennai-based airline saw its seat factor jumping a full seven percentage points to 80 (second best in the industry) in April from 73 in March, while the second-biggest gainer on this front was IndiGo, which saw its seat factor rising from 76.5 per cent in March to 82 per cent in April, which is the highest in the industry.

However, the biggest gainer in the month was IndiGo, whose market share jumped from 21.9 per cent to 23.8 per cent, while Jet Group, too, lost a tad of its market share from 29.2 in March to 28.2 per cent in April.

In April, Air India's market share came down to 17.6 per cent from 17.9 per cent in the previous month, while the troubled Kingfisher Airlines continues to languish at the last slot (sixth) with its share further dipping in the reporting month to 5.4 per cent, which is a full 1 percentage point decline from March, show the DGCA data.

At the top slot is the Jet Airways group with a combined market share of 28.2 per cent (21.4 per cent for Jet Airways and 6.8 per cent for Jet Konnect). In March, the combined share of the Jet Group stood at 29.2 per cent.

The fifth slot went to GoAir with 7.3 per cent, down from 7.5 per cent in the previous month.

Jet also saw its seat factor improving to 76.8 per cent from 77.3 per cent. So was the case with KFA, which also had a major spike in its seat factor from 69.5 per cent in March to 77 per cent in April.

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