New Delhi, Mar 20 (IANS): During January-February of this year, domestic airlines carried 2.46 crore passengers as against 1.41 crore in the corresponding period of 2022, thereby registering an annual growth of 74.50 per cent and monthly growth of 56.82 per cent.

According to data published by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Monday, nearly 1.21 crore passengers were carried by the domestic airlines in February as against 76.96 lakh in the same period last year.

However, February's domestic traffic recorded a marginal decline as compared with the previous month when the figure was 1.25 crore.

The passenger load factor or occupancy of the airlines remained on the higher side in the range of 80 to 90 per cent.

The newly-launched Akasa Air marked an 83.7 per cent occupancy in February.

SpiceJet recorded the highest occupancy of 94.1 per cent, followed by GoFirst (93.1 per cent), Air India (89 per cent) and IndiGo (86.5 per cent).

Industry sources said that the data has reflected restoration of normalcy in the aviation traffic.

The country's major airports have witnessed a higher number of air passengers in the last couple of months.

Domestic air traffic has already crossed the 4 lakh passengers per day mark.