Domestic air passenger traffic grows 15% to 129 lakh in December

Mumbai: Domestic air passenger traffic grew 15 per cent year-on-year to around 129 lakh in December 2022, but remained 1 per cent lower than the pre-pandemic level (December 2019), rating agency Icra said on Thursday.

Icra has also maintained a 'Negative' outlook on the Indian aviation industry. In the April-December period of the current fiscal, domestic passenger traffic is estimated at around 986 lakh, registering around 63 per cent year-on-year growth and lower by approximately 9 per cent compared to April-December 2019 (pre-Covid levels), it said.

At the same time, the airlines deployed slightly higher capacity (less than 1 per cent) in the previous month over the year-ago period, the rating agency said, adding that it, however, was lower by around 7 per cent than the pre-Covid levels. According to Icra, the domestic aviation industry operated at an estimated passenger load factor of around 91 per cent in December 2022 against approximately 80 per cent in December 2021 and about 88 per cent in December 2019.

The agency said it expects a fast-paced recovery in domestic passenger traffic in FY2023, aided by normalcy in operations. However, the earnings recovery for domestic airlines is likely to be decelerated due to sharp escalations in aviation turbine fuel (ATF) prices and depreciation of the rupee against the US Dollar in the backdrop of increased competition.