There was a 63 per cent drop in domestic air traffic in May compared to April as the Covid-19 second wave ravaged the entire country. In numbers, around 21.15 lakh domestic passengers travelled by air in May compared to 57.25 lakh who travelled in April.
According to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), 78.22 lakh people travelled within the country by air in March. Air India, GO FIRST (previously known as GoAir), Vistara and AirAsia India carried 4.29 lakh, 1.38 lakh, 97,000 and 64,000 passengers respectively in May, the data showed.
It was due to the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic that had badly hit the country and its aviation sector. While IndiGo carried 11.69 lakh passengers in May, a 55.3-per cent share of the domestic market, SpiceJet flew 1.99 lakh passengers, accounting for a 9.4-per cent share of the market, according to data shared by the DGCA.
The occupancy rate or load factor of the six major Indian airlines was between 39.3 per cent and 64 per cent in May, it stated. The occupancy rate at SpiceJet was 64 per cent in May, the DGCA noted.
The occupancy rates for IndiGo, Vistara, GO FIRST, Air India and AirAsia India were 51.2 per cent, 40.9 per cent, 63.3 per cent, 39.3 per cent and 44.4 per cent respectively, it added. India resumed domestic passenger flights on May 25 last year after a gap of two months due to the coronavirus pandemic.
June and July, 2020, had seen 19.8 lakh and just over 21 lakh domestic flyers, respectively, as per DGCA data. As the second wave unleashed its ferocity, the numbers first dropped to 57 lakh in April and then crashed to 21.1 lakh in May, 2021 — a figure seen in the first two months after domestic flights’ resumption on May 25, 2020.
Indian airlines are allowed to operate a maximum of 50 per cent of their pre-pandemic domestic flights. The DGCA data mentioned that in May, IndiGo had the best on-time performance of 98.7 per cent at four metro airports -- Bengaluru, Delhi, Hyderabad and Mumbai.
Vistara and AirAsia India were at the second and third positions at these four airports in May with 98.1 percent and 97.4 per cent on-time performance respectively, the DGCA said.