NEW DELHI, Oct 17: Despite the steep rise in the jet fuel prices, India is witnessing a major revival in its domestic passenger movements across the country, though it is still to reach the pre-pandemic level.
According to official figures available on Monday, 125.1 million domestic passengers flew in April to August, 2022, period as against 142 million passengers during the corresponding period in 2019. This, however, had nosedived to mere 15.7 million during the same five months period in 2020 in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic when best part of the period was under the government-imposed complete lockdown.
As restrictions were gradually eased, it rose to 48.2 million during April-August 2021 and sharply bounced to 125.1 million in the corresponding period of 2022. While this is still below pre-pandemic levels, the trend of recovery has been quick.
Aircraft movement during April-August 2021 was 47 per cent less than the corresponding period in 2019. However, it was only 4.6 per cent less than 2019 in April-August 2022.
Domestic revenue of India’s airlines in August 2022 stood 13.7 per cent lower than in the same month in 2019, which, however, were still better than the revenue collection by the domestic airlines’ in Australia, Japan, and China which remained 14.2 per cent, 16.4 per cent, and 37.8 per cent lower respectively during the same period, according to the International Air Transport Association.
The revival in India’s airlines is despite the steep rise in jet fuel prices. Jet fuel prices rose by more than 70 per cent during the first six months of 2022, marking one of the steepest increases since at least 2002. For context, the rise in jet fuel prices was much sharper than the rise in crude oil prices. For airlines, the increase in jet fuel prices represents a major challenge as this cost typically accounts for 20 to 25 per cent of total operational costs,” IATA said in a report.
Among the Indian fliers, Indigo and SpiceJet constitute 53.7 per cent and 10.3 per cent of India’s aviation market share, followed by Go Air and Vistara constituting 9.2 per cent each, according to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation. They are expected to slowly come out of the losses they suffered due to pandemic-induced restrictions.
Indigo had earned a net profit of Rs. 1,203 crores in the first quarter of FY20, which turned into losses of Rs. 2,844 crore in Q1 FY21 and further up to Rs. 3,174 crore in Q1 FY22, but only Rs. 1,064 crore in the first quarter of the current financial year. By the end of the year, the airlines companies are hoping to come out of the red though it might take a couple of years to cover the losses they suffered during the pandemic, sources said.
(Manas Dasgupta)
