Domestic air passenger traffic to increase in 2021-22
Mumbai:
India’s domestic air passenger traffic is projected to grow by about 59 per cent year-on-year to 84 million in 2021-22, though it is still about 40 per cent lower than pre-pandemic levels, credit rating agency ICRA said on Monday. .
It also expects advanced aviation turbine fuel (ATF) prices, fueled by geopolitical issues, to remain a near-term challenge for the industry and a key determinant of profitability for the sector. On a sequential basis, domestic passenger traffic grew by nearly 37 per cent to 10.6 million in March, following a near normalcy in airline operations due to the impact of the pandemic, noted ICRA.
Passenger traffic on local air routes stood at 7.7 million in February 2022.
Icra further said that the traffic growth in March this year stood at 35 per cent, up from 7.8 million in the same month a year ago.
ICRA said the airlines’ capacity deployment for March 2022 registered a growth of 12 per cent at 80,217 departures as compared to over 71,548 departures in the same month last year.
The rating agency said domestic departures registered a 42 per cent increase in March this year compared to the previous month, driven by an increase in the pace of vaccinations and a rapid reduction of the third wave of COVID-19, which has caused Allowed for expeditious lifting of travel restrictions.
“Domestic passenger traffic for 2021-22 is estimated at around 84 million, an annual growth of 59 percent, slightly higher than our estimate of 80-82 million, though it is about 40 percent lower than pre-Covid levels,” Supriyo Banerjee, Vice President and Sector Head, ICRA said.
He said that for March this year, the average daily departures were around 2,588, which was higher than the average daily departures of around 2,308 in March 2021, and notably higher than around 2,023 in February 2022.