Jan domestic air traffic drops 42.7% on flight cancellations, curbs

Traffic had started slowing down in end December, as airlines pruned capacity due to fall in demand. Market leader IndiGo cut flights by 20% in January, daily passenger figure fell below 200,000

The first month of 2022 saw a slump in air traffic as airlines cancelled flights and states reintroduced curbs due to the Omicron wave of Covid-19.

Domestic airlines flew 6.4 million passengers in January, a sequential decline of 42.7 per cent. In December airlines had carried 11.2 million passengers – which was also the highest in 2021.

Traffic started slowing down from end December and airlines too reduced capacity to factor for the fall in demand. Market leader IndiGo cut its flights by 20 per cent in January. The daily passenger figure fell below 200,000.

Industry wide load factors among large airlines fell to 64.9 per cent in January from 79.2 per cent in December. Among the airlines SpiceJet reported the highest seat occupancy of 73.4 per cent while Go First reported the best on time performance of 94.5 per cent at four metro airports.

Industry experts said that the fall in traffic in January is one expected line due to the Omicron scare. Traffic however is showing signs of recovery in February with reduction of Covid-19 cases and easing of restrictions.