India becomes world's 3rd largest domestic airline market: Report

The two biggest local aviation markets in the world today are still the US and China

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 during the past ten years.

With over 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 OAG data.

India's capacity growth rate of seats over a 10-year average is the highest, growing at 6.9 per cent annually.

"India is the fastest growing market across all five domestic markets we considered. China was close behind with annual growth of 6.3 per cent between 2014 and 2024, and there is a much smaller growth rate in the US and Indonesia," according to the data.

According to the OAG report, another interesting metric to consider across these large domestic markets is low-cost carrier (LCC) capacity share.

In April 2024, LCCs accounted for 78.4 per cent of domestic airline capacity in India, the highest LCC share of any of these five domestic markets.

"In the last 10 years, IndiGo has almost doubled their market share, from 32 per cent of capacity in 2014 to 62 per cent today. While the rest of the market has barely grown, averaging just 0.7 per cent a year, IndiGo has a domestic capacity growth rate of 13.9 per cent annually," the report mentioned.

The country has seen robust growth under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, paving the way for shaping the future of the aviation industry for the next 25 years.

On November 19 last year, airlines in India flew 4,56,910 domestic passengers. This was the highest single-day air traffic since the pandemic hit, marking a remarkable 7.4 per cent surge above pre-Covid averages, as per the Civil Aviation Ministry's data.

According to the government, the number of airports in the country has increased to 157 from 74 in the last 10 years.

More than 91 lakh passengers availed the facility of Digi Yatra, and over 35 lakh users downloaded the app in 2023.