Domestic passenger traffic dips after fresh COVID-19 restrictions in states

In Maharashtra, a night curfew is now in place since April 5 across the state from 8 pm to 7 am. On weekends, a complete lockdown (8 pm on Friday to 7 am on Monday) has also been imposed. It is important to note that Mumbai is the second busiest airport in the country after Delhi. Hence, fresh state restrictions amid a surge in cases in Maharashtra are likely to impact air traffic in the near term, industry experts said.

The domestic air passenger traffic on April 6 was over 2 lakh passengers, which was 14-15 percent lower than the average daily traffic seen in March 2021. As per ICRA, total domestic passenger traffic in March 2021 has been estimated at around 77-78 lakh passengers.

The number of flight departures on April 6 was at 2269, which was 1.3 percent lower than the average daily flight departures seen in March at 2300.

To bring context to the picture, the flight departures of April 6 was at 78 percent of the average daily traffic seen in the year 2019, which was 2900 departures. In comparison, the domestic flight departures were at 80-82 percent of the 2019 levels during April 1-5.

Similarly, domestic air passenger traffic was 62-69 percent of the average 2019 levels during April 1-5, whereas it was 53 percent of the 2019 levels on April 6.

Currently, there are 20 states and union territories which have mandated a negative RT-PCR test report from all or some arriving passengers. Gujarat, Delhi, Bihar, Jharkhand, and Madhya Pradesh are the latest additions to this list. A total of 11 states and union territories are implementing only thermal screening.

Industry experts believe that leisure travel demand is likely to be affected as passengers may postpone such travel temporarily and are likely to travel only for essential purposes for the near term.

In fact, Boeing had also said on April 7 that the increase in COVID-19 cases in some regions of India continues to be a watch item for them. It has also forecasted that the domestic demand in India is likely to reach pre-pandemic levels by the second half of 2022 and international traffic demand is likely to see full recovery through 2023.