Domestic air passenger numbers cross one lakh mark after a month

Domestic passenger traffic had fallen below the one lakh mark on May 3, as only 97,761 passengers flew on 1,306 flights, indicating lower demand as people remain averse to travelling due to the rise in the second wave of Covid-19 infections.

New Delhi: As the country sees a steady decline in Covid-19 cases, domestic passenger traffic in the Indian aviation sector crossed the one lakh mark on Saturday after more than a month. According to the data released by the Ministry of Civil Aviation, 1,07,371 passengers travelled to their destinations in 1,124 flights on June 12.

Domestic passenger traffic had fallen below the one lakh mark on May 3, as only 97,761 passengers flew on 1,306 flights, indicating lower demand as people remain averse to travelling due to the rise in the second wave of Covid-19 infections. "The second wave will push back revival of business travel and pick-up of international traffic, which account for over half of overall traffic. Given this backdrop, we now expect traffic volumes this fiscal to be ~60% of fiscal 2020 levels and recovery to pre-pandemic levels happening only by the fourth quarter of fiscal 2023," said Manish Gupte, Senior Director, CRISIL Ratings.

A screenshot grabbed from the official Twitter handle of Hardeep Singh Puri

"Traffic volumes are expected to rebound once the present affliction curve starts to flatten. A ramp-up in domestic traffic was seen after the recommencement of airport operations in May 2020, with total passenger traffic reaching ~60% of fiscal 2020 levels by February 2021, i.e. within 9 months of the first domestic travel advisory. And a much faster recovery is expected this time based on the vaccination drive, push from the government to limit the economic impact and recovery trajectory seen in countries that have emerged from a second wave," he added.

Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Monday informed that so far, we have carried over 6,11,02,885 passengers on 5,86,257 flights since operations resumed on 25 May 2020, while 1,05,578 flew on 1,114 flights on 13 June, 2021 alone. "There remains no doubt that as the situation improves and the restrictions imposed by several states are eased, these numbers will slowly increase and cross the pre-Covid numbers in the corresponding period last year," the Minister added.

Notably, from June 1, the government has reduced the capacity cap from 80 percent to 50 percent of the capacity of the pre-Covid level and the upper cap on airfares has also gone up by around 14 per cent due to a rise in ATF (aviation turbine fuel) prices. IndiGo, a private airline, has written to the ministry that they would like to go higher and expect that government will remove capacity restrictions by July 31.