Domestic Air Passenger Traffic Increased By 31 Percent In Aug

Domestic air passenger traffic increased by 31 percent in August: ICRA.

In a release issued on Monday, credit rating agency ICRA has informed that domestic air passenger traffic continues to grow in the month of August, which has increased by 31 percent to 66 lakhs as compared to the previous month.

In the month of August of the year 2020, the domestic passenger traffic was 51 lakh.

However, in August 2020, on a year-on-year basis, domestic passenger traffic grew by around 131 percent with 2.83 million passengers.

According to ICRA, even after a steady improvement in the last month, there is demanding stress at the moment, mainly due to the second wave of the Covid epidemic.

For this reason, people are traveling only when necessary.

According to Kinjal Shah, Vice President and Co-Group Head, ICRA, “The demand for air travel continues to improve and has increased by about 30 to 31 percent to 65 to 66 lakhs in August.

While in July 2021 it is estimated to be around Rs. 50.1 lakh, which represents an annual growth of about 131 percent.

The airline’s capacity deployment for August 2021 was around 99 percent higher with approximately 57,500 departure flights as compared to 28,834 departures in August 2020.

According to Shah “for August 2021, the average daily departure was around 1,900, which was significantly higher than the average figure of around 900 in August 2020 and over 1,500 in July 2021.”

The Ministry of Civil Aviation has allowed a gradual increase in capacity deployment to 33 percent from May 25 on domestic routes.

However, due to the second wave of Covid, the permissible capacity deployment was reduced by 50 percent.

The permitted capacity was again increased to 65 percent on July 5, which was later increased to 75.2 percent from August 12 this year.

In addition, the ministry has increased the minimum and maximum fare bands for domestic flights by 10 to 13 percent from August 12, 2021, to August 31, 2021.

According to ICRA, the hike in fares will not affect the demand for passenger traffic much, as at present travel is being done only for essential reasons.

However, this will compensate for some part of the increase in the prices of jet fuel for the airlines and it will also reduce the losses of the airlines.