New Delhi, March 28 (FN Agency) With the resumption of international commercial operations and increase in tariffs, Indian airports will return to black in the financial year 2023, rating agency ICRA said on Monday. The all India passenger traffic will increase by 68 -70 per cent Y-o-Y to 317-320 million, while domestic passenger traffic is expected to witness a 64 -66 per cent Y-o-Y growth in FY 2023 and reach pre-Covid levels, the agency said. ‘
‘With the resumption of international commercial operations from March 27, 2022 after two years of ban due to pandemic, international traffic is expected to see healthy growth of 100 per cent -105 per cent Y-o-Y in FY2023 and recover to pre-Covid levels in FY2024. This is factoring in the assumption that impact of future Covid waves (if any) to be low. In FY2022, the passenger traffic is estimated to increase by 62 per cent -64 per cent Y-o-Y (on a lower base) to 187-189 million despite the temporary disruption in the form of Omicron, but supported by a healthy pace of vaccination,” it said. Rajeshwar Burla, Group Head, Corporate Ratings, ICRA, said, “Resumption of international commercial operations would accelerate the traffic recovery. Southeast Asia, Middle East and Europe are expected to be the major destinations driving the demand. The yield per passenger is much higher for the international sector both from aero and non-aero revenues perspective which is a positive for airport operators. This along with the increase in tariffs at some of the major airports will result in operating income (OI) growth of 49-51 per cent Y-o-Y in FY2023.” ”While operating profitability is expected to improve sequentially in FY2023 to 29-30 per cent from 18-19 per cent in FY2022, it is still likely to remain lower than pre-covid level of 40 per cent with full recovery likely in FY2024 only,” he said.