The Indian aviation industry witnessed a surge in traffic in the first half of the 2024 calendar year, official data from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) revealed. The industry clocked a record-high half-year traffic of 79.3 million passengers during the January to June period in 2024, against 76 million passengers logged in the corresponding period a year earlier.
The data showed that domestic aviation in India recorded its peak performance in 2023, surpassing the performance seen in the pre-COVID-19 era by 5.77 per cent, reported Business Standard. The current performance of the industry stands 12.3 per cent higher than 2019, the data showed.
The report found that India remained among the few nations that have recovered quickly and fared better than the pre-pandemic years. The data showed that the aviation industry continued to maintain a growth trajectory in the year despite the current obstacles for the sector.
Meanwhile, the air traffic in June declined in comparison to May. At the same time, on a year-on-year (YoY) basis, June hit a record-high monthly domestic air traffic of 13.6 million passengers in the year. Comparatively, the passenger traffic for June 2023 stood at 12.4 million.
Obstacles For The Industry
The aviation industry has been impacted by a major shortage of aircraft. Even as IndiGo commands a fleet of more than 350 aircraft, about 70 to 80 of these carriers remain grounded owing to engine issues.
This aircraft shortage has also led to a surge in airfares and passengers are being made to face the brunt of these prices. Meanwhile, departures have risen by only 2.5 per cent, while the Available Seat Kilometres (ASK) has expanded by 3.7 per cent. The ASK is used to measure the capacity of the carriers. This indicates that load factors are piling on due to the boost in fares.
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