Growth of Passenger Traffic in 2019

As per the DGCA, domestic air passenger traffic is expected to register a high singledigit growth in 2019, benefitting from the induction of aircraft by airlines and an expected rise in air travel during the festival season. “The air passenger growth is expected to be between seven and nine per cent during 2019,” Arun Kumar, Director General of DGCA, said in an interview on October 16, 2019. Air passenger traffic grew 3.2 per cent between January and August this year, compared to 21.2 per cent in the same period last year. “Air passenger growth had slowed down after the collapse of Jet Airways, which also saw the market lose a large chunk of capacity with the grounding of Jet’s aircraft,” Kumar said. “But airlines like SpiceJet and Vistara have since then inducted several of Jet Airways’ planes in their fleet.”

When Jet Airways was grounded due to an acute fund crunch in April, more than 80 planes belonging to the Mumbai-based airline were deregistered. A big chunk of Jet’s fleet of Boeing 737NG aircraft is currently being operated by SpiceJet and Vistara. At present, SpiceJet has about 65 Boeing 737 family aircraft on its fleet, according to the airline’s website, while Vistara has nine such planes. Vistara also operates 23 Airbus A320 planes. Indian aviation is set to reach its largest fleet size by December 2019, Kumar said. The number of aircraft registered by Indian operators stood at 616 in January, Kumar said, adding that domestic operators are expected to break that record by December, as airlines are set to induct several aircraft during the next two months.