Domestic Air Travel Sees A Sequential Rebound In Oct, 2020

Domestic air travel saw a rebound in the month of October as compared to September, data by ICRA shows

"On a sequential basis, the number of departures in October 2020 increased by 24%. For October 2020, the domestic passenger traffic is estimated at 52 lakh, as against 123 lakh in October 2019, YoY decline of 58%. However, it witnessed a sequential improvement of 33% over 39 lakh domestic passenger traffic in September 2020, which had witnessed a YoY decline of 66%.

Post the initial recommencement of operations of the scheduled domestic flights with effect from May 25, 2020 to a limited extent i.e. maximum 1/3rd of their respective approved

capacity of Summer Schedule 2020, the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) permitted increasing the capacity to 45% with effect from June 27, 2020 and further to 60% with effect from

September 02, 2020.

Thus, the capacity deployed by the domestic airlines has also increased sequentially, with the airlines operating at 52% of their October 2019 capacity in October 2020 (48,804 departures in

October 2020, as against 93,950 departures in October 2019)," an ICRA Research report shows.

The number of flights departing also gradually increased from 416 on Day 1 to 1,749 on Day 156 (October 26, 2020). For October2020, the average daily departures were 1,574, significantly lower than the average daily departures of 3,031 flights in October 2019, however, much better than 1,311 in September 2020. The average number of passengers per flight during October 2020 was 106, as against an average of 131passengers per flight in October 2019.