Covid-19 impact: Indian airlines lost ₹16,000 crore during April-December
- Domestic traffic reduced to about 3 crore passengers during April-December, compared with 10.8 crore passengers during the same period in the previous year
New Delhi: Indian airlines incurred a loss of ₹16,000 crore between April and December 2020, while airports lost ₹3,000 crore during this period, civil aviation minister Hardeep Singh Puri informed the Lok Sabha on Thursday.
Domestic air passenger traffic reduced to about 3 crore during April-December, compared with 10.8 crore passengers during the same period in the previous year, Puri said.
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"The international (air passenger) traffic reduced from approximately from 5.21 crore during April-December in 2019 to approximately 55.9 lakhs during April-December 2020," he added.
Domestic airlines are currently operating at 80% of their pre-covid capacity, while the government has recently extended the ban on international commercial flights till 30 April. Dedicated cargo flights, flights under the bilateral air bubble pacts with select countries will continue to operate.
A bilateral air bubble is a mechanism to resume flights between India and other nations with preconditions during the pandemic.
India currently has bilateral air bubble agreement with about 27 countries, which include countries like Afghanistan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Canada, Ethiopia, France, Germany, Iraq, Japan, Kenya, Kuwait, Maldives, Nepal, Netherlands, Nigeria, Oman, Qatar, Rwanda, Seychelles, Tanzania, Ukraine, the UAE, the UK, Uzbekistan and the US.
"These are temporary arrangements aimed at restarting international passenger services while regular international flights remain suspended due to covid-19," Puri added.
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Credit rating agency Icra Limited expects Indian airlines to report net losses to the tune of about ₹21,000 crore during the fiscal 2021 following a raft of travel restrictions and amid diminishing travel appetite due to rising covid-19 infections, and would require additional fundings to the tune of ₹37,000 crore over FY2021 to FY2023 to recover from losses and debt.
Indian airlines, which are mostly loss making, had earlier reported net losses of ₹12,700 crore during FY2020.
The airports sector is likely to incur a net loss of ₹5,400 crore in financial year 2021 because of a sharp decline in passenger traffic following the coronavirus outbreak, Icra said in a recent report adding that the estimated cash loss of the airport sector would stand at ₹3,500 for the fiscal.
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