In August 2022, the Domestic Air Traffic grew slightly by 3% to one crore passengers in contradiction to 97 lakh domestic passengers boarded planes in July 2022. India’s state-of-the-art Airline Akasa Air could fill 53% of its seats in August 2022. The airline started flying on 7th August with flights between Mumbai and Ahmedabad.

The airline currently has four Boeing 737 Max aircraft with 189 seats. In the last week, it added Chennai as the fifth destination to its network besides Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Bengaluru, and Kochi. Sooner, it will also add Delhi to its network from next October. IndiGo, India’s largest airline, flew, holds the largest number of passengers having a market share of 58%.

As of August 2022, the Tata Group airlines, including Air India, Vistara, and AirAsia India, hold a 24% market share. Airlines flew with an average seat occupancy of 75 % despite August being a monsoon-heavy month impacting travel. SpiceJet and Vistara hold the highest occupancy of around 84% of seats. Experts assume that Akasa’s load factor will increase as the airline gets surplus time to build forward load with more bookings. The occupancy of seats will also improve as the airline flies more on metro routes. Kapil Kaul, the CEO of South Asia of Aviation Consultancy Firm (CAPA), explained that the load factor for the industry would soon improve as the removal of cap impact on airfare will be visible.

From 31st August, the Government has removed the cap on airfares, and airlines have become free to charge, according to the current market rate. The Competition has reduced airfares on some routes by dropping around 20% to 25% as airlines have started selling discounted seats for specific flights, even for close-in travel.