How Air India managed to grab its highest domestic passenger traffic ever

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first crossed the 10 lakh domestic passengers per month mark in October 2014. In the same month, IndiGo carried 18.9 lakh domestic passengers. IndiGo ferried 79.09 lakh domestic passengers in January 2024, while Air India went on to its highest-ever number of 15.97 lakh.

Air India has been stuck in decision paralysis for a long time. The airline has also recorded its highest-ever market share since privatisation. The last high was in the middle of the second wave of COVID in May 2021, when the airline’s market share suddenly zoomed to cross 20 per cent.

The period from March 2020 to the end of 2022 was largely an aberration with traffic dependent on the rise and decline of COVID cases and not the true sense of the market dynamics or seasonality. ALSO READ: Domestic air traffic up 4.7% in January Over the last few months, the airline has been inducting aircraft steadily. While the initial ones were on the ground for a very long period due to a shortage of interiors, the later ones had these issues sorted out and were deployed to operations early.

The recently inducted A320neo family aircraft are being configured in mono class (all economy) leading to more passengers being catered. Additionally, the airline deployed its first A350 into service starting January 22. With 316 seats, operating six sectors a day in addition to existing flights saw more capacity being deployed.

ALSO READ: Air India ordered to pay ₹2 lakh to four passengers for multiple flight delays While the air traffic went up by 4.69 per cent compared to last January, the traffic was down 4.9 per cent sequentially i.e. over the previous month. Every airline carried fewer passengers in January 2024 over December 2023, except Air India - which carried 53,000