NEW DELHI: In a positive news for the aviation industry, domestic passenger traffic grew by 30-31% at around 65-66 lakh in August 2021, compared to 50.1 lakh in July 2021.
When compared with August 2020, the same has grown by whopping 131%, data collected by ICRA showed.
For August 2021, the average daily departures were at 1,900, significantly higher than the average daily departures of 900 in August 2020, and higher than 1,500 in July 2021, though it remains lower than 2,000 in April 2021.
According to the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) data, air traffic is witnessing a steep rise in September 2021, as on Sunday, (September 5) 258,908 passengers took a flight while departure flight count stood at 2,124. However, it is still much lower than the normal pre-Covid traffic when daily passenger count hovered around the 400,000-mark.
“Though the recovery continued in August 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,” Kinjal Shah, Vice President & Co-Group Head – Corporate Ratings, ICRA said.
According to ICRA, elevated aviation turbine fuel (ATF) prices continue to pose a near-term challenge for the industry. In September 2021, the prices have been higher by 54.6% on a Year-on-Year (Y-o-Y) basis.