The number of passengers on domestic flights was the highest ever in October, breaching the 1-crore mark for the second time, data released by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation on Friday showed.

As many as 1.04 crore passengers flew in domestic flights during the month, 20.5% higher than the same month in 2016. The first time it had first crossed the 1-crore mark was in May when the DGCA reported it at 1.02 crore.

SpiceJet had the highest passenger load factor in October – 93.7%. Passenger load factor denotes the percentage of seats that are occupied in flights. All major airlines, except Air India, had passenger load factor of over 80% in October.

IndiGo had the most passengers in October at 41.3 lakh. The second and third spots were taken by Jet Airways and SpiceJet. While Jet Airways flew 15.9 lakh passengers, SpiceJet had 13.7 lakh.

IndiGo flights also had the best on-time performance at four major airports as 83.9% of its flights arrived and departed on time. On-time performance is recorded at the Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad airports. SpiceJet was second, with 83.3%. Jet Airways and Jet Lite flights had the worst on-time performance rate at 64%.