Domestic air traffic registered a marginal 1.2 per cent sequential growth in February. This was the second consecutive single-digit traffic growth and came in the backdrop of tightening of travel restrictions and introduction of RT-PCR tests by more states. February had three fewer days than January and that too impacted the traffic figure.
In February, domestic airlines flew 7.82 million passengers compared to 7.73 million in January. On a year-on-year (YoY) basis, traffic declined by 36.7 per cent.
Total number of departures declined by 5.7 per cent in February, resulting in improved load factors for airlines.
In the month, regional airline Star Air reported 79 per cent seat occupancy followed by SpiceJet (78.9 per cent) and Air India (78.3 per cent).
Domestic air traffic has been growing in double digits since August and the pace slowed down in January. Sequential growth slowed to 5.5 per cent in January and fell further in February as customers postponed travel plans.
Late last month, West Bengal and Karnataka joined Maharashtra as they began insisting on negative RT-PCR tests for travellers from certain states. This had resulted in a drop in last-minute bookings and passenger load, an airline executive said.
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