At a time when passenger demand continues to remain weak, IndiGo has been able to consolidate its position further by cornering 60% of the domestic market share in July, monthly data from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) show. Pre-COVID-19, IndiGo’s market share had hovered between 42% in January 2019 and 48% in February 2020.

Together, Indian carriers ferried 21 lakh passengers last month — an 82% decline from July 2019.

However, last month’s numbers were marginally better than in June, when the total number of passengers was at 19.84 lakh. With the government regulating air fares and fixing maximum and minimum ticket costs that airlines can levy, the reason for IndiGo’s higher market share is likely to be its large number of aircraft in operation — nearly 150 out of the total 256.

Its ability to keep its aircraft flying despite poor sales in the industry is also likely to be an important factor. Of the total unique passenger trips, IndiGo accounted for 12.72 lakh. It was followed by SpiceJet (15.7%) in the second spot.

Air India, which the Centre is trying to privatise, saw its share dropping to 9.1% from 12% pre-lockdown. AirAsia ferried 6.2% of the total passengers, Vistara 4.2% and GoAir 3.8%.

A large number of seats continued to fly empty. SpiceJet sold 70% of its seats on average, IndiGo 60.2%, AirAsia 56.2%, Vistara 53.1% and GoAir 50.5%.