Overseas air traffic up 13% in April-June, domestic airlines gain | Mint

New Delhi: The number of international passengers flying to and from India rose in the quarter ended June, driving the share of domestic airlines in overseas traffic higher.

International air traffic to and from India rose 13% on year to around 17.7 million passengers in April-June, according to the latest data from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation. That was more than 14% higher than the pre-covid levels of 2019.

Low-cost carrier IndiGo had the largest individual share of the international traffic among domestic airlines at 18.3%, up from 17% a year earlier, as it flew 3.2 million people during the quarter.

At a group level, the Tata-backed umbrella of airlines recorded the highest share of international traffic. Air India flew around 2.2 million passengers, cornering a 12.3% share. Its subsidiary Air India Express recorded 1.5 million passengers with a 8.3% share, while Vistara—its joint venture with Singapore Airlines—had a 4.2% share with 740,877 flyers.

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Akasa Air, which commenced flight operations in August 2022 and launched international flights from 28 March 2024, flew 19,065 international passengers for the quarter. Currently, it flies to Doha, Jeddah, Riyadh, Abu Dhabi and Kuwait.

Budget carrier SpiceJet, which has been facing a financial crunch, saw a slight dip of around 0.6% in its overseas traffic at 416,269 passengers.

Overall, the Indian airlines further expanded their share of the total overseas traffic in the Indian market to 45.6% compared with 43.9% share a year earlier and 35% in the same quarter during 2019. The share of foreign airlines shrunk to 54.4% from 56% a year ago.

IndiGo and Air India have been focusing on the international segment to boost growth. And that’s behind Air India’s order for 470 aircraft and IndiGo’s order for 500 planes in 2023.

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“I think, it is time that we bring some of that economical wealth that sits outside of the country—a lot of foreign carriers are flying customers from India to the world, and I think that economic opportunity has to be brought back to this country, and I really do believe that between Air India and ourselves we will do what it takes to bring all of that back,” IndiGo promoter and managing director Rahul Bhatia had told Mint last month.

Overall Traffic Grows

The total traffic carried by Indian carriers rose 17.6% on year to over 8 million passengers for the quarter ended June, while it rose 10% on year to 9.6 million for foreign airlines.

Among the foreign airlines, Emirates, Etihad, Singapore Airlines, Air Arabia, and Thai Airways were among the largest by Indian international traffic. Dubai-based Emirates had the largest share at 1.4 million passengers, up 3.6% on year. Etihad recorded a 3.9% share with 680,588 passengers, while Singapore Airlines recorded an increase of 2.6% to 591,297.

Emirates’ share in overall traffic declined to 7.9% from 8.6% a year ago, while it fell to 3.3% from 3.7% for Etihad.

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Ratings agency Icra expects the international air passenger traffic for Indian carriers to expand by a “healthier” rate of 15- 20% in FY25. It maintains a stable outlook on the Indian aviation industry amid continued growth in domestic and international air passenger traffic, and a relatively stable cost environment.

The increased demand for air travel is also visible at not just the metros but even across the tier-2 cities in India as well, a focus area for both domestic and foreign carriers. The demand for overseas travel has been particularly robust for cities such as Amritsar, Bhubaneswar, Lucknow, Kozhikode, Kannur and Thiruvananthapuram.

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