July marks recovery in domestic air passenger traffic: ICRA

Domestic air passenger traffic grew 56 per cent at about 48 lakh in July compared to 31 lakh in June as Covid infection trajectory declined, rating agency ICRA said on Thursday.

The airlines' capacity deployment for July was 90 per cent higher than July 2020 (47,200 departures in July 2021 against 24,770 departures in July 2020).

On a sequential basis, the number of departures in July 2021 were higher by 49 per cent as Covid-19 infections demonstrated a downward trajectory.

Kinjal Shah, Vice President and Co-Group Head at ICRA, said for July 2021, the average daily departures were at 1,500, significantly higher than the average daily departures of 800 in July 2020, and higher than 1,100 in June 2021, though it remains at lower than 2,000 in April 2021.

The average number of passengers per flight during July 2021 was 104 against an average of 98 passengers per flight in June 2021.

"Though the recovery continued in July 2021, there is continued stress on demand, driven largely by the second wave of the pandemic, limiting travel to only necessary travel, while both leisure and business travel have been curtailed due to various state-wide restrictions, despite the decline in infections," said Shah.

While the scheduled international operations have been suspended further till August 31, under the Vande Bharat Mission (VBM) for evacuation of Indian citizens from foreign countries, which started from May 7, 2020, the international passenger traffic (inbound and outbound) for Indian carriers has been 39 lakh for the period May 7, 2020 to July 31, 2021.

For July 2021, the international passenger traffic for Indian carriers under the VBM was estimated at 2.1 lakh, a sequential growth of 43 per cent.

( With inputs from ANI )