India’s Civil Aviation Industry is on a high-growth trajectory. The total passenger traffic in Domestic Airlines during H1 2016 stood at 47.35 Million, a whooping 48% higher compared to the figure during the same period in 2014. The primary reasons for such vast expansion are increase in low-cost carriers, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in domestic airlines, advanced Information Technology and improving regional connectivity. The graphs below show cumulative H1 figures regarding progress in the domestic civil aviation space over the last 3 years.

Approximately 30% of the Passenger Traffic is in Category-I routes that connects 7 main cities across 12 routes: Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad and Trivandrum.

The routes connecting 15 stations in North Eastern Region, Jammu & Kashmir, Andaman & Nicobar and Lakshadweep are Category-II routes and carries 9% - 10% of the Passenger traffic.

Routes other than those in Category-I and Category-II fall in Category-III

While Indigo remains market leader by a wide margin, Jet Airways and Air India are trying to catch up. Together they account for 70% of the domestic flyers.

The domestic market leader, Indigo, recorded maximum growth in departures over the years followed by Jet Airways and Air India. While Indigo witnessed 23% increase in departures during H1 2016 as compared to H1 2015, its nearest competitor Jet Airways achieved only a 7% increase during the same period.

The Mumbai – Delhi air route is the busiest and carried over 5 Lac passengers in June 2016. The second in the list is Bengaluru – Delhi route that carried only 3.32 Lac passengers. Delhi – Patna figures among the top 20 with close to 1 Lac passengers. 10 of the 12 Category I routes are in the top 20 list while only Delhi – Srinagar Category II route is a part of the list.

IGIT Delhi is the busiest airport in India followed by CST Mumbai and Bengaluru Airport

Note: City 1, shown above, is Mumbai in Mumbai – Delhi route

Data Source: Directorate General of Civil Aviation, Government of India