India's domestic traffic was 71 percent lower in May this year compared to the corresponding period in 2019 amid the emergence of more contagious Delta variant of coronavirus, global airlines body IATA said on Wednesday.

Passenger traffic is measured in revenue passenger kilometres (RPKs), which is calculated by multiplying the number of seats that were filled with passengers to the distance travelled by the flight.

"India's domestic traffic fell 71.0% in May compared to May 2019 amid the emergence of the new and more contagious “Delta” variant. This compared to a 42% decline registered in April versus the same month two years ago," the International Air Transport Association (IATA) said in a statement.

The IATA, which has around 290 airlines as its members, said the domestic passenger traffic across the world in May 2021 was 23.9 percent less than the figures of May 2019.

The airlines body said the global international traffic was 85.1 percent less in May this year compared to the corresponding month in 2019.

Scheduled domestic passenger traffic was suspended in India for about two months between March 25 and May 24 last year due to the coronavirus-induced lockdown.

Since May 2020, the domestic traffic had been on a path of recovery when the second wave of the pandemic hit India during April and May this year.

India and its aviation sector was badly hit again during the second Covid wave. Currently, the Indian carriers are operating around 1,400 daily domestic flights.