Cancellations dropped below 1% and the number of passengers travelling by domestic carriers rose by 29 per cent in July.  While SpiceJet managed to hold its top position in terms of passenger load factor by touching 93.4 per cent in July, budget airline Indigo maintained its position with the highest market share of 35.8 per cent.

As the vacation period came to an end many airlines had slashed airfares, thus encouraging fliers.  According to an official data, in June domestic carriers had carried 66.01 lakh.  The carriers ferried 67.45 lakh passengers, a growth of 29.3 percent compared with 52.16 lakh passengers seen in July last year.

For no-frill airline IndiGo it turned out to be the best as in the month of July as it ferried 24.17 lakhs while Air India ferried 10.94 lakhs passengers, Jet group had 15.37 lakhs.

The data provided by DGCA (director general of civil aviation) reflects that the passenger load factor wise SpiceJet continued to be on top at 93.4 per cent, while IndiGo made it 78.4 per cent in July. In June IndiGo had 86.6 per cent of load factor.

In terms of passenger load factor (occupancy) Air India's position improved as it rose to 77.8 per cent last month from 73.5 per cent seen in June. Last month, Jet Airways' passenger load factor touched 81 per cent, Jet Lite (80.1 per cent), GoAir (81.2 per cent), Vistara (60.3 per cent), AirAsia (80.2 per cent), Air Costa (81.7 per cent) and Air Pegasus (71.5 per cent).

During the January-July period, passenger growth jumped 21.13 per cent to 455.78 lakh. “Passengers carried by domestic airlines during Jan-Jul 2015 were 455.78 lakh as against 376.28 lakh during the corresponding period of previous year thereby registering a growth of 21.13 per cent,” DGCA said.

In terms of cancellations of flights IndiGo remained on a better position than the other airlines. While IndiGo stood at 0.11 per cent cancellation. Maximum cancellation was by Air Costa at 4.67 per cent. Air Pegasus' stood at 2.50 per cent, Air India (1.12 per cent), Jet Airways (0.52 per cent), SpiceJet (0.49 per cent), Go Air (0.46 per cent), Vistara (0.37 per cent), Air Asia (0.30 per cent) and Jet Lite (0.22 per cent).

The overall cancellation rate of scheduled domestic airlines for July stood at 0.53 per cent with little over 47 per cent due to technical issues.