How West Asia conflict impacted Indian airlines' international business

West Asia conflict forces Indian airlines to cancel one in five international flights in March, sharply cutting capacity and disrupting operations across key routes

Even as Iran and the US have agreed to a ceasefire for the next two weeks, the West Asia conflict’s huge impact on India’s air carriers collectively can be gauged from the fact that as much as one-fifth of the total international flights flown by them between March 1 and March 31 got cancelled primarily because of dislocation of airports during the war.  

 

According to the latest operating data by aviation analytics platform Cirium, Indian carriers cancelled 3,025 flights out of a total 15,984 international flights in March. The cancellations they were forced to make in the month was a staggering 13 times more than the previous month that witnessed only 228 flight routine cancellations.

 

Air India Express took the largest hit owing to its business being concentrated in West Asia. The Tata Group airline saw 1,215 flight cancellation in March — half of its total scheduled international flights. Spicejet  was also impacted as over 55 per cent of the carrier’s international flights were cancelled. IndiGo’s exposure to West Asia forced it to cancel nearly 10 per cent of 7,432 international flights scheduled in March. Air India also saw cancellations for 13 per cent of its total international flights in March compared with only 2 per cent cancellations in February.

 

Based on their schedule, India’s top two air carriers, IndiGo and Air India Group, collectively, reduced their seat capacity by a substantial 313,000 seats in March over February between India and West Asia, according to Cirium data.

 

Indian carriers as well as other airlines flying to West Asia, including the UAE, Oman, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, planned for an overall shrinkage of seats in March by around 190,000 seats over February. It has also led to a reduction in the number of flights in March by 1,063 over February.

 

As a result, the available seat kilometre, a key performance indicator measuring an airline’s carrying capacity — calculated by multiplying the number of seats available for sale on the flight with the total distance flown — fell by over 5.3 per cent in March over the previous month.

 

However, West Asian carriers that gave preference to their own countries recored a better performance in March. Emirates, for instance, increased its flight schedule in March by adding in 142 more flights month-on-month, totalling 1,478 flights. Saudia almost normalised its schedule compared with other carriers by adding 60 more flights between India and Saudi Arabia in March over February.