Friday, 17 May, 2024
By: Anshul Vipat
The aviation sector, which was hit the hardest during the COVID-19 pandemic is slowly limping back on its feet
The average daily flight departures or capacity deployment rose by 1.3 percent to over 2,600 departures in September
The festive season has paid rich dividends to the aviation industry as passenger traffic witnessed a significant jump in September 2022. The aviation sector, which was hit the hardest during the COVID-19 pandemic is slowly limping back on its feet. The entry of new players, like Asaka Air, has also contributed to the surge in air travel. However, the numbers are still lower when compared to pre-Covid time.
According to the latest figures released by the , the domestic passenger traffic for September 2022 was 1.3 lakhs, 2 percent higher than 1.1 lakh in August 2022 and 46 percent higher than September 2021. The average daily flight departures or capacity deployment also rose by 1.3% on month to over 2,600 departures in September. This has taken the average number of daily domestic traffic to more than 3.4 lakh passengers in September, from around 3.3 lakh passengers in August.
New players and festive mood boosts traffic
The entry of new players, particularly late Rakesh Jhunjhunwala's , has helped boost the passenger traffic. Akasa carried more than 90,000 for a 1 percent market share in its first full month of operations in September. In August, it managed to fly 24,000 passengers at a 0.2 percent market share and a load factor of almost 53 percent. In comparison, Alliance Air, which has 21 aircraft in its fleet and mostly flies regional routes (something the Akasa is also focusing on), had a 1.2 percent market share. AirAsia India had a 5.9 percent share, and SpiceJet, one of the oldest budget carriers in the country, had a 8 percent share. Indigo continued to dominate the sector cornering 61 percent of the total domestic traffic pie.
The removal of fare caps with effect from August 31 has so far worked in favour of the customer as the fare levels are still lower than the highs witnessed when the fare caps were in place.
Traffic still below pre-Covid level
The demand for travel sentiment has been often dampened over the last two years due to covid waves, inflationary environment, and rise in air fares over weak rupee and high jet fuel prices. 2022 was no different, with passenger traffic showing massive fluctuation. Thanks to fears of another Covid pandemic wave in January 2022, domestic air passenger traffic actually fell drastically to about 6.4 million in January, 2022. There was a steady improvement in numbers till May 2022 when traffic touched 1.2 million. This was almost equal to the pre-Covid level of 12.2 million in May 2019 and 11.8 million in May 2018. But since then, traffic has started falling, dropping below 10 million in July 2022. Even the September 2022 figure is quite lower than the pre-covid levels.
Early Diwali for aviation sector
Analysts expect the domestic air traffic to further surge in October. In fact, the month has already begun on a positive sentiment. On October 9, over 4 lakh pax boarded domestic flights. It has occurred nearly after a gap of five months as last time the daily domestic passenger traffic touched the same milestone was on May 15. This feat was lauded by Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself. Before COVID-19 came into our lives, the highest single day passenger traffic on an average was 4.2 lakh.
In the long run though, there can be no doubt that the aviation sector in India will grow at very healthy rates. For one, massive foreign direct and domestic investments in India across a spectrum will fuel business travel. The entry of revamped Jet Airways in the coming months will inevitably launch a price war that will again middle class Indians to take to the skies. The sky is the limit, as they say.
