Domestic air traffic touched 1.02 crore in August

16 Sep 2022 , 07:28 AM

Domestic air passenger traffic increased by 5% to 1.02 crore in August, and rating agency ICRA predicts a rapid recovery in the traffic this fiscal year as a result of normal airline operations and increased vaccine coverage.

ICRA further stated that foreign traffic for Indian carriers exceeded the pre-COVID figure of around 19.8 lakh by 32% when it released the monthly domestic air passenger traffic data for August on Thursday.

Domestic passenger traffic is anticipated to have increased by over 13% year over year and reached nearly 5.24 crore in the first five months of this fiscal.

ICRA said that the airline’s capacity deployment in August was over 37% compared to the same time last year, but less than pre-COVID levels by almost 10%.

Additionally, it stated that due to operations returning to normal and the pandemic’s waning, a swift rebound in domestic passenger traffic is anticipated in FY2023.

However, due to elevated ATF prices, the rupee’s depreciation against the dollar, and an environment of increased competition, it was further said that the profitability recovery for domestic airlines would be gradual.

“A persistent increase in aviation turbine fuel (ATF) prices and an overall environment of inflationary pressure continue to affect the industry’s revenues, with ATF prices in September 2022 rising by about 83% on an annual basis. But sequentially, the same decreased by 0.7%” according to ICRA.

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