Domestic Air Traffic Rose By 3% In September: Report

Domestic air traffic witnessed a slim growth of 3 per cent as it rose to 69 lakh in September 2021 compared to 67 lakh seen in August 2021, as per the data released by credit rating agency ICRA on Wednesday.

The data further indicated that on a year on year basis, air passenger traffic rise was 74 per cent in September 2021 compared to the corresponding month of last year.

Departures during September 2021 for all the airlines were at 61,000 while they were only 39,628 in September 2020, ICRA said, adding that it indicated that Coronavirus related infections had come down considerably.

Vice President and Sector Head of ICRA, Suprio Banerjee said that the average daily departures for September 2021 were 2,100, which were much higher than 1,321 daily departures seen in September 2020.

Mr Banerjee further noted that the average number of passengers per flight in September 2021 were 113, slightly down from 117 in August 2021.

The recovery is being witnessed, he said, but at the same time the overall demand continues to be subdued, especially from the corporate traveller segment.

Effective from June 1, 2021 the Civil Aviation Ministry had cut down the permissible capacity to 50 per cent of the pre-pandemic levels, as there was a huge surge in cases due to the rising second wave of the pandemic.

The ministry from August 12, 2021 had raised this capacity to 72.5 per cent and it has now been further raised to 85 per cent, effective from September 18, 2021 as the cases have shown a decline.