According to data submitted by various scheduled airlines, domestic air traffic has come down sharply by over 15 per cent in October. The overall traffic has also declined during the January-October period, as compared to the year ago period. Even this festival season has not brought cheer for airlines.    

The number of domestic passengers came down to 45.55 lakh in October from over 54 lakh during October 2011. A scheduled domestic airline is defined as an airline which has at least five aircraft and operates a fixed schedule.    

During the January-October period, domestic scheduled airlines flew a total of 483.94 lakh passengers. It is nearly 2.47 per cent less than the 496.19 lakh domestic passengers flown during January-October 2011.    

In terms of market share, Indigo has maintained its top position with 27.8 per cent followed by the Jet Airways-Jetlite (Jet Konnect) combine with 24.7 per cent. But it is Air India whose share is on the rise for six successive months.