Domestic aviation continues to recover from the brutal impact of the second wave of COVID-19. According to the monthly report of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, Indian airlines in total carried over 70 lakh passengers in September, a 5.4% increase over the previous month.
The last time the passenger traffic figures were above 70 lakh in March, after which they saw a sharp decline – 57.25 lakh in April, 21.15 lakh in May, 31.13 lakh in June, 50.07 lakh in July and 67.01 lakh in August.
However, domestic passenger traffic still lags behind the levels seen before the second wave. During the best months ever since the outbreak of COVID-19, these numbers ranged between 73 lakh to 78 lakh between December 2020 and March 2021. In February 2020, before the pandemic affected air travel, India’s monthly domestic passenger traffic stood at 1.23 million. , indicating that last month’s figures are only 57% of pre-COVID levels.
Recent improvements in passenger numbers have meant that most airlines saw flights with about two-thirds of seats sold. SpiceJet had the highest passenger load factor (or seat occupancy) at 78.8%, followed by GoAir at 74.1%, IndiGo at 73.6%, Vistara at 72.4% and AirAsia at 68%. Air India, which was to be acquired by the Tata group, had a load factor of 63.7%.
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