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Domestic air traffic nears pre-Covid level, says Scindia in Parliament
With an improvement in the Covid situation, services of all international passenger flights will resume by March 27 at 100% capacity, Scindia added.
After suffering huge losses, the civil aviation industry is close to reaching pre-Covid-19 pandemic levels as traffic of 380,000 passengers per day was recorded in December last year, Union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia told the Rajya Sabha on Monday.
Responding to a question by Shiv Sena MP Anil Desai, Scindia said domestic traffic was close to about 400,000 passengers before the pandemic.
“So, we are very well on our way back to recovery, roughly about 5 to 6% off from pre-Covid levels. But then Omicron came along, and we had wave 3. And again, I am pleased to report to the House today that as of yesterday’s numbers, after going down to almost about 160,000 passengers a day in wave 3 from the pre-Covid level of 400,000 and post Covid-2 level of 383,000, we reached the number of roughly about 380,000 passengers per day,” he said.
With an improvement in the Covid situation, services of all international passenger flights will resume by March 27 at 100% capacity, he added.
The Centre had banned all international scheduled flights for a week starting March 23, 2020. The ban stretched for nearly two years in the midst of a raging pandemic. However, special international flights were allowed to operate between India and 37 other countries from July 2020 under an air bubble arrangement.
On March 8 this year, the government announced the resumption of routine international flight operations from March 27.
On Desai’s query on job losses, Scindia said the full resumption of services will ensure restoration of employment opportunities in the industry.
High fuel rates have also contributed to heavy losses suffered by airlines, the minister said.
Responding to a question by Nationalist Congress Party MP Praful Patel on the impact of high crude oil prices on the aviation sector, Scindia said fuel contributes to about 37% of the cost of running an airline.
“Fuel prices have gone up. I may just point out that in 2020, prior to Covid, aviation turbine fuel (ATF) was close to about ₹21,000 per kilo litre and today, it is ₹93,000 per kilo litre. So, fuel prices itself have gone up by close to 4.5 times. This is a very, very key issue for us,” he said.
At least 11 states charge value added tax (VAT) on ATF ranging from 15% to 30%, Scindia pointed out.
“I am very glad to report to this House that prior to my taking over, we had 11 states that charged VAT on ATF at rates between 1-5% and we had 25 states that charged VAT rates between 15-30%. I would like to thank the chief ministers of all those states because we have reversed that equation. Twelve states have reduced their level of VAT from 25-30% down to 1-4%. There are 23 states that charge VAT only between 1-4% and only 11 states that charge between 15-30%,” he said.
