India's air passenger traffic records 3-5% negative growth in FY'20: Icra

The country's air passenger traffic registered a negative growth of 3-5 per cent in the last fiscal as traffic slowed even before the coronavirus outbreak due to multiple reasons, including closure of Jet Airways, according to rating agency Icra.

The agency, on Thursday said the de-growth was largely driven by higher airfares in the wake of large scale flight cancellations following shutting down of Jet Airways and overall sluggishness in demand.

Jet Airways stopped operations in April last year.

A gradual recovery in domestic traffic is expected once the commercial air services are restored while the international traffic would take a couple of quarters to come back to the normal level, the agency said.

Commercial flight services have been suspended till April 14 amid the 21-day nationwide lockdown to prevent spreading of coronavirus infections.

"Overall, except for the closure of airport operations, excluding cargo, the passenger traffic witnessed the de-growth in the range of 3-5 per cent for FY2020," Icra said during a media webinar on Thursday.

The growth in passenger traffic as well as aircaft movement slowed down considerably during nine months of FY 2020 even before the coronavirus pandemic, it added,