India outpaces peers in recovery of int'l flight capacity, report reveals

Among the top ten international markets for India in August 2023, six have surpassed their pre-pandemic capacities

India is the only one in a list of 11 Asian nations that has recovered and increased its international seat capacity in August 2023 over the pre-pandemic levels of 2019, says a report by OAG that provides global aviation data.

Other Asian countries studied, such as China, Taiwan, Singapore and Japan, are in the negative zone. However, India has seen a recovery of 4 per cent in international seat capacity in August 2023 compared to 2019. Vietnam is still in a negative zone (-8 per cent) and while Singapore is 11 per cent lower, Indonesia is still down 12 per cent.

The study also sheds light on where recovery has or hasn’t taken place for India, in terms of top international destinations by seat capacity. Six of India’s top 10 international markets in August 2023 have now exceeded pre-pandemic capacities: these include UAE by 8 per cent, Saudi Arabia (33 per cent), Singapore (11 per cent), Qatar (6 per cent) and UK (53 per cent).

Thus, seat capacity on West Asian routes (to and from India) has seen the sharpest recovery, while Southeast Asian (with the exception of Singapore) routes have lost their sheen. Thailand, which was ranked the second largest market August 2019 for international seat capacity from India, fell to fifth place (-29 per cent of August 2019 capacity) whilst Malaysia, previously in fourth place, fell to eighth place (-36%).