Airline Stocks Jump Despite Slower Traffic Growth In March

Aviation stocks rallied on Thursday even as data released by the industry regulator showed a slower growth in passenger traffic in the lean month of March compared to the previous year.

Indian carriers flew 90.45 lakh passengers in March, up 14.91 percent over the same month in the previous year. Traffic had grown 25.2 percent in March last year.

SpiceJet Ltd. reported the highest capacity utilisation with a passenger load factor of 91.4 percent, as per the data by Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). The passenger load factor fell for all airlines in March.

SpiceJet Ltd. rose as much as 10.44 percent, followed by rivals InterGlobe Aviation Ltd. -- the parent company of IndiGo airline -- with 6.58 percent gains and Jet Airways Ltd. which rose 6.53 percent.

InterGlobe Aviation Ltd. leads the peers with the highest market share of 39.7 percent, followed by the Jet Airways with market share of 15.4 percent.

The overall cancellation rate of scheduled domestic airlines for the month of March 2017, has been 0.41 percent. With the cancellation rate of 0.09 percent Jet Airways had the fewest cancelled flight. Government operated Air India was the worst hit with 2.1 percent of its flight being cancelled.

In terms of the on-time-performance, IndiGo led the pack followed by SpiceJet with 88 percent and 85.7 percent, respectively. Mumbai-Bengaluru flights account for major revenue for most of the airlines.