India crosses 4 lakh air passengers per day mark for first time since COVID-19

The Indian aviation industry has crossed a mark of 4,00,000 domestic air passengers a day on Sunday for the first time since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. The airlines carried 4,07,975 passengers on 2,838 flights which amounts to about 95.5 per cent of pre-Covid-19 daily domestic air passenger traffic. 

According to the data of the Ministry of Civil Aviation, in the domestic traffic category, there were 7,99,957 airport footfalls, 5,672 aircraft movements, and 3,91,982 arriving passengers. 

 

International traffic has also shown signs of recovery with 1,77,653 airport footfalls, 63,603 departing passengers and 54,050 arriving passengers. 

In terms of the passenger load factor, IndiGo airlines reported a load factor of 88.2 per cent, Air India's load factor was 89.7 per cent, Spice Jet at 93.7 per cent), Go First at 90.4 per cent), Vistara at 87.2 per cent) and Air Asia India of 87.1 per cent, according to the Aviation Ministry data. 

 

A recent report by ICRA also found that India's domestic air passenger traffic is estimated to have grown by around 59 per cent year-on-year (YoY) to 84 million in FY22, although it is still about 40 per cent lower as compared to the pre-pandemic level. 

The passenger traffic on local air routes was 7.7 million in February 2022. For March this year, the average daily departures were at around 2,588, higher than the average daily departures of around 2,308 in March 2021, and notably higher compared to around 2,023 in February 2022,  

Meanwhile, ATF prices have surged by around 93 percent year-on-year in April this year because of the elevated crude oil prices, and geopolitical issues arising from the Russian-Ukraine war, the rating agency said.