India's aviation sector still has miles to fly

Airlines operated at much lower capacity of about 27% this July compared to July 2019 level, but there was a marginal rise over the 25% capacity achieved in June 2020.

Domestic airlines are operating less than a third of normal flights, though there is a marginal increase in capacity compared to June 2020.

Rating agency Icra said airlines operated at a much lower capacity at around 27 per cent in July 2020 compared to July 2019 level but there was a marginal increase over the 25 per cent capacity achieved in June 2020.

Domestic flights resumed after two months suspension on May 25.

"The number of flights departing has also gradually increased from 416 on day 1 to 890 on day 69 (July 31).

"For July the average daily departures were 780, significantly lower than average daily departures of 2,845 in July 2019 though better than 723 in June.

"The average number of passengers per flight during July was 86 as against an average of 134 passengers per flight in July 2019," said Kinjal Shah, vice president, Icra.

Icra maintains that H2FY21 will witness some recovery, with Q4FY21 witnessing YoY de-growth of just 3-14 per cent in domestic passenger traffic with improved load factors. Overall FY2021 is likely to witness 41-46 per cent de-growth in domestic passenger traffic, it said.

Photograph: Amir Cohen/Reuters