Domestic air passenger traffic in India sees 6.3 pc growth at 138.5 lakh in Oct

New Delhi: The domestic air passenger traffic reached 138.5 lakh in October, higher by 6.3 per cent in comparison to 130.3 lakh in the previous month, according to a report on Thursday.

The domestic air passenger traffic’s year-on-year growth was 9.6 per cent in October and significantly higher by 12.8 per cent than pre-Covid levels of 122.8 lakh in October 2019, according to data by credit rating ICRA.

For the first seven months of current fiscal (April-October), domestic air passenger traffic stood at 932.0 lakh with a YoY growth of 5.9 per cent

In the first half this fiscal (H1 FY25), the international passenger traffic for Indian carriers stood at 162.6 lakh with a YoY growth of 16 per cent.

The airlines’ capacity deployment in October 2024 was higher than October 2023 by 7.6 per cent, and higher by 5.2 per cent over September 2024, said the report.

“The outlook for the Indian aviation industry remains stable, driven by expectations of moderate growth in domestic air passenger traffic and a relatively stable cost environment in FY2025,” the report added.

The pace of recovery in industry earnings is likely to be gradual owing to the high fixed cost nature of the business.

ICRA expects the Indian aviation industry to report a net loss of Rs 20-30 billion in FY2025 and FY2026 compared to Rs 10 billion in FY2024 “due to anticipated pressure on yields as airlines strive to maintain adequate passenger load factor (PLF) amid continued elevated aviation turbine fuel (ATF) prices”.

The industry has been facing supply chain challenges and issues of engine failures for the Pratt and Whitney (P&W) engines supplied to various airlines.

In FY2024, Go Airlines (India) Limited grounded half of its fleet due to faulty P&W engines, thus stalling its operations.

InterGlobe Aviation Limited (IndiGo) also had more than 70 aircraft grounded as on September 30, due to the P&W engine issue, including the powder metal (used to manufacture certain engine parts) contamination factor with its P&W fleet.

Overall, the Indian aviation industry had 134 aircraft for select airlines grounded as on June 30, which is 15-17 per cent of the total industry fleet, thus impacting overall industry capacity (as measured by available seat kilometre or ASKMs), said the report.