Over 58 lakh people flew within the country, up from 45 lakh last September.NEW DELHI: Domestic air traffic grew 28% last month as airlines were coming out with discount offers to attract flyers at the onset of the festive season. Over 58 lakh people flew within the country, up from 45 lakh last September. This is among the highest numbers recorded in the lean July-September quarter and is closer to the figure of 60 lakh seen this year in the busiest summer holiday month of May.SpiceJet COO Sanjiv Kapoor, the man who started the offer-a-day at his financially struggling airline and thereby forcing all other carriers to follow suit, is smiling at the travel figures of an otherwise lean September. "The stimulation that we gave the market has benefited everyone, especially customers. Even other airlines now grudgingly accept that we did the right thing (the unending discount schemes)," Kapoor said.
SpiceJet saw its planes going the fullest with an occupancy of 85.9% — the highest among all carriers in September. Even in market share, the low-cost carrier ( LCC) has pipped Air India (domestic) to the fourth spot.
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