India has seen aircraft movements exceed pre-pandemic levels as carriers try to lure more passengers to the skies.
Indian airlines are pushing ahead with their bid for additional domestic capacity, exceeding pre-pandemic figures for a sustained period now.
India first crossed to 2019 levels in early January
India first traveled 2019 levels in early January but was forced to scale back flights due to the COVID surge. However, this quarter (April-June), carriers have officially exceeded pre-pandemic ability by a healthy margin, showing no signs of stopping.
India’s airlines have racked up over 2,500 flights
It’s finally happened, domestic airlines have been able to break the cycle of capacity drops and exceed 2019 COVID levels. Data from RadarBox.com shows that since March 5th, India’s airlines have racked up over 2,500 flights every day and are currently approaching 2,800 rotations.
This quarter of success has been made possible by three factors, high vaccination rates, low COVID levels, and no government interference. While India is yet to vaccinate children, the current program has permitted travelers to begin flying again with little to no fear, departing airports bustling again. Another major factor has been low COVID cases, with no new variants causing a surge and hurting traffic.
However, critically, the government’s decision to drop its “temporary” restrictions on capacity has permitted the competitive market to emerge once more. While fare caps stay in place, airlines have been deploying capacity and frequencies to existing routes to shore up revenues and fly desperate holidaymakers and business travelers.
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It’s important to note that nothing is truly stable in the COVID era. While the three-month spell is the longest airlines have seen at pre-COVID levels, another variant could easily send traffic plummeting. However, as we saw with Omicron in January, the rebound time has shortened significantly, so airlines should be ready with capacity within weeks of cases falling.
In 2019, India saw nearly 1,100 international flights daily
One market that still lags behind is international flights. In 2019, India saw almost 1,100 international flights daily, hitting a peak of 1,233 in December of that year. Two years later, this week, carriers saw 928 daily foreign flights, down 15% from pre-pandemic levels.
The good news is that numbers have accelerated rapidly since India permitted regular international flights to restart in late March.
Traffic is already up 11% and growing week-on-week, boosting ambitions that by the end of the year we will be back at 2019 levels. Notably, not all foreign carriers have returned due to their home restrictions, but Indian and Middle Eastern airlines have been more than willing to add capacity in response.
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