New Delhi, Oct 22 (IANS): Domestic air passenger traffic jumped by 13.4 percent in September which stood at 45.55 lakh passengers ferried, up from 40.18 lakh carried during the corresponding month last year, data furnished by the civil aviation ministry showed.

According to data furnished by the ministry, the passengers carried by domestic airlines during January-September 2013 was up 4.2 percent at 456.95 lakh from 438.40 lakh passengers in the corresponding period of last year.

The passenger traffic grew by 20.39 percent in August and stood at 52.60 lakh, from 43.69 lakh passengers ferried during the corresponding month last year.

The upward trend in the industry was despite a hike of 25-30 percent in air fares during the month under review.

"In line with the rising demand, the low cost carriers have already expanded their domestic capacity for the coming winter schedule," said Sharat Dhall, president, Yatra.com.

"Looking at the current market trend and the continuing high fares we are still optimistic that air travel shall continue to rise especially with the festive season and holidays approaching.“

However, on a month-to-month basis, the traffic decreased by 13.4 percent as domestic airlines carried 45.55 lakh passengers in the month under review, down from 52.60 lakh in August 2013.

The data also showed that Air India's domestic operations achieved the highest overall occupancy in the month under review at 73.2 percent, followed by IndiGo at 70.3 percent and SpiceJet at 67.9 percent.

IndiGo remained the largest domestic passenger carrier with a market share of 30.3 percent followed by Air India's domestic operations (20.3), Jet Airways (19.1), SpiceJet (17.3 percent), Go Air (7.5) and Jetlite (5.5 percent).