05 Oct 2020

India Aviation Industry Newsletter 5 October

Expect domestic passenger traffic to reach pre-COVID level by year end: Hardeep Puri Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said in an interview last weekend that domestic passenger traffic could reach the pre COVID-19 level by the end of current year. He said the daily domestic traffic has reached 1.76 lakh passengers from 30,000 passengers when the civil aviation operations resumed on May 25 following a two-month gap due to the pandemic. Indian aviation sees recovery in September with 37% month-on-month growth: ICRA The Indian aviation industry witnessed a continued recovery in domestic passenger traffic in September 2020, with a sequential growth (over August 2020) of 37% to 39 lakh passengers. The capacity deployment in September 2020 at around 46% (vis-a-vis September 2019) is a significant increase over the 33% capacity deployed in August 2020. On a Y-o-Y basis, however, domestic passenger traffic declined by 66%. Kinjal Shah Vice President ICRA stated “The number of flights departing has also gradually increased from 416 on Day 1 to 1,488 on Day 128 (September 28, 2020). For September 2020, the average daily departures were 1,311, significantly lower than the average daily departures of 2,874 in September 2019, though much better than 930 in August 2020. The average number of passengers per flight during September 2020 was 98, as against an average of 133 passengers per flight in September 2019. Thus, it is expected that the domestic aviation industry operated at a passenger load factor (PLF) of 63% in September 2020, as against 85.5% in September 2019, that too on low capacity. The PLF for September 2020 was similar to August 2020 despite the increase in capacity.” Nepal's aviation ministry proposes resumption of flights to India Nepal's Civil Aviation Ministry has sent a proposal to resume flights to and from India from October 17, confirmed an official from Nepal's COVID-19 Crisis Management Centre (CCMC). Nepal's Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation has proposed to open its air connection with India again after a period of seven months, with adherence to a health protocol, confirmed Joint Secretary of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Ministry Kamal Prasad Bhattara SalamAir to fly to six Indian destinations as part of India-Oman air bubble pact SalamAir has announced special flights to six Indian destinations from Muscat as part of the recently established bilateral air bubble arrangement between Oman and India for the operation of special international passenger flights connecting the two countries. The airline will operate special passenger flights twice a week to Calicut (Kozhikode), Chennai, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Lucknow, and Trivandrum (Thiruvananthapuram) till the end of November. Acumen Aviation © 5 October 2020 All Rights Reserved.