New Delhi: As many as 2,69,713 passengers travelled by air in the country on August 1- the highest single-day jump in air traffic, months after the devastating second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic.
According to the Ministry of Civil Aviation data, domestic airlines carried 2,69,713 passengers on 2,065 flights across India - 62 percent of air traffic of pre-Covid levels on August 1 while on the next day number of passengers went down to 2,38,489 on 3,906 flights.
Analysing the record jump in the number of domestic fliers, aviation consultancy and research firm CAPA said, "On 1st and 2nd August, domestic pax approached 250k/day, approx 100k higher than July's daily average. This was due to fares being sold below the floor, as notification of extension of caps was delayed. This demonstrates that the market can be stimulated with lower fares."
"Price regulation is constraining growth and its continuation will impact airline financials," the aviation consultancy added.
Notably, the Ministry of Civil Aviation on July 5 allowed domestic airlines to operate at 65 per cent of their pre-COVID capacity. For the first time after May 2020, the government cut down domestic airlines capacity from 80 per cent to 50 per cent from June 1.
Also read:Civil Aviation Ministry to review cap on airline capacity
An aviation expert said that the flier numbers jumped as the price cap was effective till 31 July and this gave the airlines enough time to sell tickets at lower prices before any order was given by the aviation watchdog DGCA. Soon after the DGCA extended its order, the ticket prices went the same as it was earlier.
Last week, brokerage firm ICICI Securities released a report stating that Air passenger traffic in India rose from the seventh straight week. "Weekly average daily fliers came in at 165k in the week ended 24 July 2021 vs 166k in the week ended 17 July 2021. For the week ended 17 July 2021, the average number of departures increased to 1,785 vis-a-vis 1,623 in the prior week. The number of fliers per departure fell sharply to 93 vs 102 in the prior week."
