Domestic air pax traffic on recovery path

Domestic air passenger traffic is expected to have grown at 41-42 per cent sequentially in June, said ratings agency ICRA. Accordingly, the June 2021's domestic passenger traffic is estimated at 29-30 lakh, implying a sequential growth of 41-42 per cent compared to 19.8 lakh in May 2021.

Besides, ICRA said the airlines' capacity deployment for June 2021 was around 46 per cent higher than June 2020. On a sequential basis, the number of departures in June 2021 were higher by 14-15 per cent as Covid-19 infections demonstrated a downward trajectory, the agency said.

According to Kinjal Shah, Vice President and Co-Group Head, ICRA: "For June 2021, the average daily departures were at 1,100, significantly higher than average daily departures of 700 in June 2020, and higher than 900 in May 2021, though remains significantly lower than 2,000 in April 2021."

"The average number of passengers per flight during June 2021 was 94, against an average of 77 passengers per flight in May 2021. Though there is some recovery observed in June 2021, there exists continued stress on demand, driven largely by the second wave of the pandemic, limiting travel to only necessary travel, while both leisure and business travel have been curtailed due to various State-wide restrictions, despite the decline in infections."

At present, airlines' permissible capacity deployment is at 65 per cent of pre-Covid levels applicable up to July 31, 2021. Furthermore, ICRA pointed out that international passenger traffic for Indian carriers under the Vande Bharat Mission (VBM) was estimated at 1.47 lakh, a sequential growth of four per cent as flights to or from India remained suspended in June 2021 by many countries, citing the new variant of Covid-19 and high infection levels.