Domestic Flights: Air Traffic in Metro Cities Hit More Than Non-Metro Cities, Says Report

Domestic Flights Latest News: Though the resumption of the domestic flights in India from May 25 after a blanket ban for two months has been successful as passengers are not staying away from domestic travel giving in to the fear of the spread of the novel coronavirus, the aviation sector is far from the revival it needs, a report by an aviation consultancy has said. Also Read – International Flight Tickets: Vande Bharat Fares Slashed For US, Canada After Controversy | 5 Points

The Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA) in its report has said the recent traffic mostly comprised those passengers that were stuck in the “wrong” place at the time of imposition of lockdown on March 25, and started returning to their home base, reported PTI. Also Read – International Flight July Schedule: Vande Bharat Phase 4 Begins Today | Will Phase 5 See US Airlines Coming in?

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1. According to the report, demand for domestic flights has been weaker than expected since May 25. The planes are booked to their capacity, true, but the airlines are running fewer planes, the airports are handling fewer arrivals and departures.

2. The civil aviation department has given a go-ahead to the airlines to increase their capacity. But given the rising operational cost, not all of the airlines are in a position to increase their operations.

3. The ban on scheduled international passenger flights till July 31 will also dent the airlines.

4. Air traffic in metro cities has been hit hard more than the smaller cities.

5. Air traffic is mostly one way while before the pandemic it used to be two-way.

6. Demand for tickets to metro cities has been lower than expected because the metro cities have more cases and flyers are avoiding those cities, even if travelling is necessary.

7. State-wise different quarantine rules have also impacted air traffic.

8. The price cap on airfare is also impeding in the growth of the aviation sector, the report said. If the temporary cap on airfares continues beyond August 24, it may be a greater hit in the second quarter as demand is historically weak during this period.

9. The domestic airlines are operating at a lower capacity total of 21,696 departures in June 2020, as against 86,456 departures in June 2019, resulting in a 74.9 per cent reduction year-on-year in capacity deployment.

10. For June, the domestic passenger traffic was 1.95 million, as against 11.2 million in June 2019, a de-growth of 83.7 per cent over the year-ago period. The average number of passengers per flight during June was 90, as against an average of 139 passengers per flight in June last year.