31% domestic air traffic from 10 of 310 routes

As per data from the Director General of Civil Aviation, 10 out of around 310 routes accounted for 31% of the 4.48 crore-strong domestic air traffic between October 2015 and March 2016. Over 55% of the routes had under 10,000 monthly passengers, with at least 10 routes having under 100 passengers. Further, Mumbai-Delhi was the busiest route, followed by Bengaluru-Delhi.

The Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) releases both domestic and international air traffic reports every month. According to these reports, the domestic air traffic was 4.48 crore during the 6 month period between October 2015 and March 2016. 31% of the traffic came from just 10 routes out of 310 different routes.

The Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) releases both domestic and international air trafficreports every month. DGCA provides information about traffic in various routes in these reports. Between October 2015 and March 2016, domestic air traffic was a total of 4.48 crore in more than 300 different routes.

Domestic Air Traffic at its peak in March 2016

The domestic air traffic was 78.35 lakh in March 2016 compared to around 62.8 lakh in March 2015, up 25%. The domestic air traffic in October 2015 was 70.08 lakh. It has increased continuously till December 2015. Though it went down slightly in February 2016, the domestic air traffic touched its peak in March 2016. This could be due to elections in various states.

10 routes account for 31% of all Domestic Air Traffic

The top 10 routes accounted for 1.38 crore or 31% of the total domestic air traffic in these 6 months. Mumbai – Delhi was the busiest route with 31.4 lakh passengers followed by Bengaluru – Delhi with 17.48 lakh. Bengaluru – Mumbai was the third busiest route with 16.38 lakh passengers. Mumbai – Goa was the 4th busiest route with 11.77 lakh passengers. Mumbai was a part of the 6 out of top 10 routes while Delhi was a part of 5 of these routes. Delhi-Chennai & Delhi-Kolkata routes saw a sudden increase in the number of passengers in March 2016, possibly because of elections in Tamil Nadu and West Bengal.

There are more than 10 Routes with less than 100 passengers in a month

In each of these 6 months, there were a minimum of 10 routes with less than 100 passengers in the entire month. There were less than 1000 passengers a month in more than 20% of these routes. There were less than 10000 passengers in more than half the routes. The average number of passengers per route in each of these months was more than 20000. In other words, the demand was less than the average in more than 70% of the routes. Goa-Tirupati was one of the common routes with less than 100 passengers in a month. The routes with less than 100 passengers a month were spread across the country and not specific to a region.

Month	Number of Routes with < 100 Passengers	Number of Routes with <1000 Passengers	Number of Routes with <10000 Passengers	Total Number of Routes
October 2015	12	56	175	314
November 2015	10	58	180	308
December 2015	13	68	180	314
January 2016	11	55	172	304
February 2016	10	62	181	309
March 2016	12	65	187	318