Domestic air passenger traffic in India is expected to increase by approximately 59% year on year to 84 million in 2021-22, though it will remain approximately 40% lower than pre-pandemic levels, according to credit ratings agency ICRA on Monday.
It also expects high aviation turbine fuel (ATF) prices, exacerbated by geopolitical issues, to remain a near-term challenge for the industry and a key determinant of profitability.
Domestic passenger traffic increased by about 37% year on year to 10.6 million in March, owing to a return to normalcy in airline operations as the pandemic’s impact faded, according to ICRA.
According to the report, passenger traffic on local air routes will reach 7.7 million in February 2022.
According to ICRA, traffic increased by 35% in March this year, compared to over 7.8 million in the same month last year.
According to ICRA, airline capacity deployment in March 2022 increased by 12% to 80,217 departures, up from over 71,548 departures in the same month last year.
Domestic departures increased by 42% in March compared to the previous month, thanks to increased vaccination rates and the rapid abatement of the third wave of COVID-19, which allowed for the quick lifting of travel restrictions, according to the ratings agency.
“Domestic passenger traffic for 2021-22 is expected to be around 84 million, up 59 percent year over year from our estimate of 80-82 million, though it will be around 40% lower than pre-COVID levels,” said ICRA Vice President and Sector Head Suprio Banerjee.
The average daily departures for March this year were around 2,588, which was higher than the average daily departures of around 2,308 in March 2021 and significantly higher than the average daily departures of around 2,023 in February 2022, he said.
Saty tuned and updated with Aviationa2z.
