New Delhi, Jul 6 (Agency) Domestic air passenger traffic rose by more than 40 per cent in June on sequential basis as COVID-19 graph moved downwards, credit rating agency ICRA said in a press release today. “For June 2021, domestic passenger traffic is estimated at about 29-30 lakh, implying a sequential growth of 41-42 per cent compared to 19.8 lakh in May 2021. The airlines’ capacity deployment for Jun 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,” it added.
Second wave of COVID-19 was on its peak in May this year which led to a sharp drop of 63 per cent in number for flyers on domestic routes. With growing demand, Ministry of Civil Aviation on Monday rose the seat capacity ceiling from 50 per cent in June to 65 per cent of pre-COVID level. “For June 2021, the average daily departures were at around 1,100 flights, significantly higher than average daily departures of about 700 in Jun 2020, and about 900 in May 2021. However, its remains significantly lower than around 2,000 daily departures in April 2021. The average number of passengers per flight during Jun 2021 was 94, against an average of 77 passengers per flight in May 2021,” said Kinjal Shah, Vice President & Co-Group Head, 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, 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, she added.