India is currently the third-largest domestic airline market in the world, having risen from fifth place ten years ago, thanks to the country’s strong aviation sector growth over the past ten years.
With about 8 million seats, India was the smallest market ten years ago. The US and China held the top two spots, with Indonesia and Brazil coming in fourth and third, respectively.
The two biggest local aviation markets in the world today are still the US and China.
“However, India is surpassing the Brazilian and Indonesian domestic markets to become the third-largest domestic market with airline capacity of 15.6 million seats in April 2024,” according to data compiled by OAG.
With an annual growth rate of 6.9%, India has the highest capacity growth rate of seats over a 10-year average.
Out of the five domestic markets we looked at, India has the fastest rate of growth. The US and Indonesia have far slower growth rates than China, which trailed closely behind with an annual growth of 6.3% between 2014 and 2024, the data show.
Low-cost carrier (LCC) capacity share is another intriguing metric to take into account across these large domestic markets, according to the OAG report.
The largest LCC share of these five domestic markets was found in India, where LCCs made up 78.4% of the domestic airline capacity in April 2024.
“In the past ten years, IndiGo’s market share has nearly doubled, rising from 32% of capacity in 2014 to 62% of it currently. IndiGo has a domestic capacity growth rate of 13.9% annually, compared to the rest of the market, which has only expanded by an average of 0.7% annually “the report stated.
Under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the nation has experienced rapid growth, opening the door for the aviation sector to shape the next 25 years.
4,56,910 domestic passengers were flown by Indian airlines on November 19 of last year. According to data from the Civil Aviation Ministry, this was the highest single-day air traffic since the pandemic struck, indicating a stunning 7.4% increase above pre-Covid averages.
The country now has 157 airports, up from 74 in the previous ten years, according to the government.
In 2023, over 35 lakh users downloaded the app and over 91 lakh passengers used the Digi Yatra service.
