Domestic Air traffic dipped to 42-43 per cent in Jan 2022

New Delhi, Feb 8 (UNI) The third wave of pandemic, Omicron and the resultant restrictions led to a sharp sequential decline in domestic air passenger traffic by 42-43 per cent at 64 lakh in January 2022, compared to 112 lakh in December 2021, rating agency ICRA said on Tuesday. The same reflected a Y-o-Y decline of 17 per cent, wherein passenger traffic stood at 77 lakh in January 2021. The airlines’ capacity deployment for January 2022 was around 7 per cent lower than January 2021 (62,979 departures in January 2022 against 67,877 departures in January 2021). On a sequential basis, the number of departures in January 2022 were lower by 27 per cent due to emergence of the new Covid-19 variant, the agency said. Suprio Banerjee, Vice President and Sector Head, ICRA said, “For January 2022, the average daily departures were at 2,032, marginally lower than the average daily departures of 2,190 in January 2021, while significantly lower than ~2,790 in December 2021.” ”The average number of passengers per flight during January 2022 was at 102, against an average of 129 passengers per flight in December 2021. The sequential recovery slumped in January 2022 with emergence of the new variant (Omicron) and related restrictions impacting the leisure travel segment along with existing subdued demand from the corporate traveler segment. ”The same is also reflected as passenger traffic for 10M FY2022 remained 45 per cent lower than 10M FY2020 (pre-Covid level). The emergence of the new Covid variant and reactionary air travel restrictions will keep the recovery prospects subdued for the domestic airlines sector in the current quarter,” he said. The agency said aviation turbine fuel (ATF) prices, which had seen a sharp increase of 59.9 per cent on a Y-o-Y basis till February 2022, continued to be a concern.