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New Delhi: Domestic air passenger traffic fell a sharp 43% sequentially during January due to the rapid spread of omicron variant of coronavirus and resulting travel restrictions, credit rating agency Icra said on Tuesday.
The average daily departures during January 2022 stood at about 2,032, marginally lower than 2,190 in January 2021, and significantly lower compared to 2,790 daily departures recorded in December 2021, Icra said adding that the average number of passengers per flight during January 2022 was at 102 against 129 in December 2021
"The third wave of pandemic, Omicron and the resultant restrictions has led to a sharp sequential decline in domestic air passenger traffic by about 42-43% at about 64 lakh in January 2022, compared to about 112 lakh in December 2021," it said.
Daily domestic air passenger traffic, which has been on the rise since last June, started dipping in late December due to a rise in fresh cases of infections.
"One major concern that continues to be a drag on the aviation sector is the aviation turbine fuel (ATF) prices, which have seen a sharp increase of 59.9% on a Y-o-Y basis till February 2022...This, coupled with relatively low-capacity utilisation of aircraft fleet, will continue to weigh on the financial performance of Indian carriers in FY2022," the Icra report added.
Average daily domestic air passenger traffic is, however, showing signs of recovery in February with a decline in the number of fresh infections.
The total number of departing domestic passengers stood at 240,773 on 7 February, according to the latest data from the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA).
This is far below the 360,000 daily passengers recorded during early December.
" The sequential recovery slumped in January 2022 with emergence of the new variant (Omicron) and related restrictions impacting leisure travel segment along with existing subdued demand from the corporate traveller segment," said Suprio Banerjee, vice president & sector head, Icra.
"The emergence of the new Covid variant and reactionary air travel restrictions will keep the recovery prospects subdued for the domestic airlines sector in the current quarter," he added.
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