Top 5 things every air passenger looking to travel this summer should know

The Directorate of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has approved the northern summer schedule 2024 for airlines in India. The approved schedule sees operations to 125 airports, the highest and 24,275 weekly domestic departures across airlines. The new schedule propelled Uttar Pradesh to the top of states by operational airports count.
Here are the top five things to look at.
As the season progresses, 125 airports will become operational and it would be an achievement. While some of these had flights in the past (Nanded, Jalgaon, Pakyong), the ones in Uttar Pradesh have been newly constructed or expanded.
Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat will lead the pack with 14, 11 and 9 operational airports respectively.
The North Eastern states will have its highest ever connectivity with 17 operational airports in the eight states being operational.
Read: Flight operations restart from Naini-Saini airport at Pithoragarh, linking sacred lands in Uttarakhand
Last summer, Go FIRST shut down abruptly as it filed for bankruptcy. Exactly a year later, the approved schedule is 6% bigger and the capacity which Go FIRST had has been filled by IndiGo alone. IndiGo has approval of 1585 more flights per week this summer compared to last. Go FIRST had approvals of 1538 flights last summer. IndiGo is not the only carrier which has grown year over year, with Star Air growing 36%, Vistara growing 25%, IndiGo growing 13% and Air India a modest 5%.
SpiceJet is the only carrier which has shrunk, even as it has settled issues with multiple lessors and seen funds being infused in the last few months. The airline’s approved schedule sees it have approval of 1657 weekly departures. In February, the airline operated 1081 weekly departures and is now closer to reality, helping other carriers get the slots which it would have otherwise been holding.
Read: London-bound flight’s cabin crew spots passenger trying to end life. What happened next?
The international schedule of Indian airlines hasn’t grown well, even as Air India, Air India Express and IndiGo have constantly talked about growing international services rapidly. Akasa Air’s plans also seem to have been slowed down after announcements in the past indicating rapid scale up of international flights.
There is a 5% growth year over year for international flights led by Vistara which is seeing its schedule grow 1.5 times, while IndiGo is growing 13% while Air India grows a modest 5%. Sequentially (compared to current schedule) the growth is merely 1.6%. IndiGo will maintain its lead as the largest international carrier amongst Indian airlines out of India, by departures and seats on offer, though capacity by ASK (Available Seat Kilometre) will see Air India surpass everyone.
Read: IndiGo launches direct flights between Bengaluru, Agatti from Mar 31
A look at utilisation of slots for February shows that Akasa Air, Air India Express and Vistara are operating more departures than what were approved at the beginning of the current schedule. It is a regular phenomenon for growing airlines, with all the approved flights not starting at the beginning of the schedule. February was the last full month of the Winter schedule.
SpiceJet utilised only 50.7% of its approved departures, while flybig was the worst performer at less than 10%. While the new schedule sees SpiceJet’s flight being cut, both year on year and sequentially, the overall operational flights this summer could reach an all time high.
In India, the domestic market share largely follows the capacity share. IndiGo maintains the lead with 53% share of all approved departures, while the Tata group of airlines have 29%. The group had stated that it aims to have 30% domestic market share over the five year period. While the merger pangs continue and has taken longer than what was anticipated earlier, this could be the season when it could achieve success with a sum of four airlines. This could be a big boost for the group and set its sights on something higher.
Ameya Joshi is an aviation analyst.