Wadia group’s low-cost carrier Go First, formerly known as GoAir, has notched up its highest market share of 9.8 per cent in 2021 and become the third-largest domestic carrier after IndiGo (53.5 pc), and Air India (11.8pc), according to the October air traffic report released by the regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation.
The Wadia group airline, which began 2021 with a market share of 8.2 per cent in January, has overtaken rival SpiceJet to become the third-largest carrier in October.
In January, IndiGo had a market share of 54.3 per cent, followed by SpiceJet with 12.8 per cent, and Air India with 10.3 per cent. AirAsia and Vistara had market share of 6.9 per cent and 6.7 per cent.
In April, Go First notched up a high of 9.6 per cent. Still, the October market share of 9.8 is its highest in 2021 and closer to its pre-Covid market share of 10 per cent in February 2020.
Go First, which brought back Kaushik Khona to replace Vinay Dube as the Chief Executive Officer in August 2020, had kick-started 2021 with renewed vigour and aggressively opened new stations and added new flights.
In November, it added 32 new flights and Amritsar, Surat, Dehradun and Aizawl to its domestic network. The airline said direct flights would connect these airports to and from Delhi, Mumbai, Srinagar, Bengaluru, Kolkata and Guwahati.
Its IPO is scheduled to open on December 8, and the airline is looking to raise Rs 3,600 crore from the initial public offering.
While Go First has consolidated its market share, rival SpiceJet’s, which maintained a 12.6 per in Q1, witnessed a decline in market share, logging 10.6 per cent in Q2, and 8.7 per cent in Q3. In October, it marginally improved it to 9.0 per cent, according tothe DGCA report. “We believe we have consistently performed well, and that is reflected in our increased market share. October results show that we can now look ahead optimistically to more opportunities and growth. Our customers have reiterated their faith in us. Zero cancellation and passenger complaints bear testimony to our relentless efforts to provide exceptional service,” said Chief Executive Officer, Go First, Kaushik Khona.
