Drop in Domestic Flight Operations - COVID Impact

Number of domestic flights in June 2019 and 2020 from some of the prominent airports

Updated on 07 Aug

The Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi, the busiest in the country, operated only 9,335 domestic flights in June this year as against 27,985 flights in the same month last year, a drop of nearly 67%.

The Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport in Mumbai, the second busiest, operated a mere 2,594 domestic flights this June as against 19,682 in the same month in 2019—a drop of 87%. These telling numbers are not restricted only to the two biggest airports in the country. Chennai airport saw a drop of more than 80%, Bengaluru 74%, Hyderabad 71% and Kolkata 61% in-flight operations.

Official data shows that Covid-19 and the subsequent lockdown have played havoc with the aviation sector, resulting in a sharp fall in the number of flights operated and the number of fliers from airports across the country.

As per the above report the domestic passengers in Chennai came down from 40.5L in 2019 to 1.69L in 2020 , in Mumbai it came down from 80.59L to 2.62L, Delhi saw a drop from 1.14Cr to 10.38L, Kolkata experienced a drop from 46.86L to 3.90L, Bangalore it came down from 71.60L to 4.35L, in Hyderabad it came down from 45.35L to 2.68L and Kochi had a drop from 14.7L to 64 thousand. These figures are for the period Apr - Jun 2019 Vs Apr - Jun 2020.

Below is the drop in the occupancy level of our Domestic Carriers:

Airlines	Jun.20	Jun.19
Air India	56.5	81.2
Spice Jet	68	93.7
Go Air	57.9	94
Indigo	60.7	90.1
Air Asia	56.5	90.7
Vistara	56.6	83.3

The fear of Covid-19 has driven away the fliers, which is reflected in low passenger load. Spicejet had 94% occupancy in June 2019, this came down to 68% in the same month this year. Indigo’s corresponding figures were 90% and 60% while Air Vistara’s were 83% and 57%. The low demand has bled airlines, forcing layoffs and salary cuts.

Source:Newindianexpress.com