Domestic aviation industry on recovery path; passenger traffic 60% higher in FY23

Domestic air passenger traffic grew by over 60% year on year to a volume of 13.60 crore in FY23

The domestic aviation industry continues to witness recovery with air passenger traffic logging around 60% growth at 13.60 crore in FY23 annually, ICRA said on Wednesday.

Despite this, domestic air passenger traffic remained around 4% below the pre-pandemic (FY20) volume of 14.15 crore, the credit rating agency said.

The Indian carriers had flown a total of 8.52 crore passengers on local routes in the year ended March 2022, as per ICRA.

Domestic passenger traffic stood at 1.30 crore in March this year, a growth of around 22% from March 2022 volume of 1.06 crore, said Suprio Banerjee, Vice President, ICRA.

In FY23, the overall airlines' capacity deployment was higher by 38% as compared to FY22, he said.

The airlines' capacity deployment last month was higher by 14 per cent year-on-year and around 7% more than pre-COVID level of March 2019, ICRA said.

The domestic passenger load factor of the airlines industry, according to ICRA is estimated at 89% in March 2023, against 82% in the year- ago period and 87% in March 2019 (pre-COVID levels).