Rating agency ICRA says domestic air passenger traffic remains low for April-December 2021
Mumbai:
According to ratings agency ICRA, domestic air passenger traffic remains 44% lower for the April-December 2021 period at Rs 111 lakh than the corresponding 2019-20 period.
According to a rating agency report, total domestic passenger traffic was 730,000 in December 2020.
It also says that the emergence of the new Coronavirus variant and reactionary restrictions affecting air travel remain quasi challenges for the airline industry.
On a sequential basis, growth in December was recorded at 5-6% compared to November 2021, during which Indian airlines carried 105 thousand passengers, ICRA said in a statement. dad on Monday.
Besides, the average number of daily departures is around 2,800, significantly higher than about 2,065 in December 2020 and about 2,700 in November 2021, it said.
At the same time, the average number of passengers per flight in December 2021 was largely unchanged at 129 compared with 130 in November, ICRA said.
Furthermore, with the emergence of the new coronavirus variant and the recent upward trend in infections, some states have begun to announce some restrictions on domestic air travel, posing a serious threat. As for the restoration of domestic passenger traffic in the near term, it further noted.
ICRA said that domestic air passenger traffic increased by about 5-6% to about 111 thousand in December 2021, compared with about 105 thousand in November 2021.
It added that the same reflects year-on-year growth of around 52%, where passenger traffic reached around 73 lakh in December 2020, the report said.
ICRA also notes that a major concern that continues to be a drag on the aviation sector is the price of aviation turbine fuel (ATF), which has surged 49% year-on-year through January 2022. mainly due to the increase in crude oil prices.
This, coupled with the relatively low availability of the fleet, will continue to weigh on the financial performance of Indian carriers during 2021-22, the agency said.
