MUMBAI: The Indian aviation industry witnessed continued recovery in domestic passenger traffic in September, with a sequential growth (over August) of about 37% as it transported over 39 lakh passengers.
The capacity deployment in September at about 46%, vis-a-vis September 2019, is a significant increase over the roughly 33% capacity deployed in August 2020. But year-on-year, domestic passenger traffic declined by about 66%, said the monthly analysis by credit rating agency Icra.
The number of departing flights has also gradually increased from 416 on Day 1 (May 25) to 1,488 on Day 128 (September 28), said Icra. For September 2020, the average daily departures were about 1,311, significantly lower than the average daily departures of 2,874 in September 2019, though much better than about 930 in August 2020. The average number of passengers per flight during September 2020 was 98, as against an average of 133 passengers per flight in September 2019.
“Thus, it is expected that the domestic aviation industry operated at a passenger load factor (PLF) of about 63% in September 2020, as against 85.5% in September 2019, that too on a low capacity. The PLF for September 2020 was similar to August 2020 despite the increase in capacity deployment by about 37%. Overall, from May 25, 2020 till September 30, 2020, the domestic passenger traffic has been ~11 million,” said Kinjal Shah of ICRA.
