India's domestic air passenger traffic rose 41% sequentially in June: ICRA

Though there is some recovery observed in June 2021, there exists continued stress on demand, driven largely by the second wave of the pandemic.

Domestic air passenger traffic in India rose 41 percent in June 2021 to around 29-30 lakh passengers when compared to May 2021, rating agency ICRA said in its report on July 6.

When the official data for domestic air passenger traffic by the
Directorate General of Civil Aviation for June is expected to be released next week, ICRA in its report estimates that airlines’ capacity deployment for June 2021 was around 46 percent higher than June 2020.

On a sequential basis, the number of departures in June 2021 were higher by 14-15 percent, as COVID-19 infections demonstrated a downward trajectory, the rating agency said in its report.

"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," Kinjal Shah, Vice President & Co-Group Head, ICRA said in the report.

The average number of passengers per flight during June 2021 stood at 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,” Shah said in the report.

The Civil Aviation Ministry on July 5 allowed domestic airlines to operate at 65 percent of their original pre-COVID-19-level capacity after the daily domestic air passengers had nearly touched 1,60,000 people and are likely to rise to 1,70,000 by the end of this week.