India's domestic passenger traffic over half of pre-COVID levels, says Civil Aviation Secretary

Amid the country's tally of COVID-19 cases reaching 84 lakh and the economy struggling to bounce back, India's domestic passenger traffic has reached more than half of pre-COVID levels, said Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) on November 7.

"India's domestic passenger traffic has reached more than half of pre-COVID levels with a number of daily air travellers crossing over two lakh in November," news agency PTI quoted MoCA Secretary Pradeep Singh Kharola as saying.

Kharola added that the the number reached over two lakh daily passengers on November 2, compared with 30,000 passengers when flights resumed after the coronavirus-induced lockdown. The civil aviation secretary hailed the country’s aviation fraternity for adapting very well to the new normal.

Earlier the same day, ICRA said that domestic air travel demand continued on an upward trajectory month-on-month. The rating agency said that October volumes witnessed a 33 percent rise from September 2020, with 52 lakh passengers.

However, domestic travel demand declined 58 percent, with the fall in international passengers even greater at 87 percent, on a year-on-year basis.

After relaxing COVID-19 lockdown norms, the Union government in June had permitted increasing airline usable capacity to 45 percent, which was further scaled up to 60 percent from September 2. The Civil Aviation Ministry expects the capacity to to go up to 70-75 percent due to the upcoming festival season.