Domestic flight departures grew by 63.4% from Sept 2020 to Feb 2021: ICRA

Indian airlines operated around 64,288 flights in February vis-à-vis 39,330 flights six months ago ie. September, last year, when the government allowed domestic carriers to operate up to 70% of their total flight capacity

The number of flight departures grew by 63.4% from September 2020 to February 2021, as Indian airlines continued to add services following the government’s allowance for operating higher capacity in phased manner. During the same period, according to ICRA, a rating agency, the number of domestic passengers flown by the airlines increased more than four-fold to around 45.6 million from around 11 million.

Representational image (REUTERS)

Indian airlines operated around 64,288 flights in February vis-à-vis 39,330 flights six months ago ie. September, last year, when the government allowed domestic carriers to operate up to 70% of their total flight capacity. This data, collated from rating agency ICRA’s monthly traffic numbers, reiterates the government’s claim that domestic air traffic has been growing every month since the first day restrictions were lifted.

At the time domestic air services were reopened on May 25 last year following the pandemic-induced lockdown, which brought total flight movements to a halt for nearly two months, the government had allowed airlines to deploy only one-third of their capacity.

However, this threshold was increased to 80% in December, 2020.

In 2020, IndiGo was the only airline to cross 100,000 scheduled departures. According to ICRA, it operated the most aircraft, 104,549 departures in 2020, followed by SpiceJet, Air India and GoAir respectively.

In the last six months (from September, 2020 to February, 2021) approximately 24,958 flights have been added by Indian airlines. While, domestic air traffic continues to grow, the government is yet to allow airlines to utilise 100% flight capacity.

Kinjal Shah, vice president, ICRA, said, “The average number of passengers per flight during February 2021 was 121, against an average of 136 passengers per flight in February 2020. Thus, it is expected that the domestic aviation industry operated at a passenger load factor (PLF) of ~78% in February 2021, against 87.7% in February 2020, that too on a low capacity. Overall, from May 25, 2020 till February 28, 2021, domestic passenger traffic has been pegged at ~45.6 million.”