Airlines struggle in pandemic

Airlines industry is facing a major impact due to pandemic

credit : National Herald

New Delhi : Airlines continued to struggle to fill seats during June despite operating only at about a fourth of their total capacity, as covid-19 pandemic and the restrictions imposed by states continued to dent travel demand.

The country's airlines carried 1.98 million passengers during June, down from 12.03 million passengers during the same period in the previous year, monthly data from Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) which was released on Friday showed.

The passenger load factor of major scheduled commercial airlines stood between 54% and 68%, which means carriers were able to fill only up to two third of the total seats during June.

More than half of the domestic passengers were carried by IndiGo.

During June 2019, the passenger load factor of major scheduled commercial airlines stood between 81% and 94%.

Load factor, also known as passenger load factor, is an industry metric that measures how much of an airline’s passenger carrying capacity is used.

National carrier Air India Ltd’s domestic operations registered a 56.5% load factor during the month and a market share of 12.2%. The airline carried 0.24 million passengers during the month.

SpiceJet Ltd, which has a market share of 16.8%, registered a 68% load factor during June. The airline carried 0.33 million passengers during the month.

India’s largest airline IndiGo registered a 52.8% market share in June, while reporting a 60.7% load factor during the month. The airline carried 1.04 million passengers during the month.

Meanwhile, Vistara, a joint venture between Tata Sons and Singapore Airlines, reported a 56.6% load factor, and 5.6% market share. AirAsia India, a joint venture between Tata Sons and AirAsia Berhad, reported a 56.5% load factor and 7.1% market share during the month. Wadia Group-controlled GoAir, reported a 57.9% load factor, and 4.5% market share.

Vistara carried 112,000 passengers during June, AirAsia India 140,000, and GoAir 89,000, according to the data.

During June, Vistara cancelled 16.50% of its total flights, while the overall cancellation rate of scheduled domestic airlines for the month stood at 3.03%.

"Passengers carried by domestic airlines during Jan-Jun 2020 were 35.18 million as against 70.66 million during the corresponding period of previous year thereby registering annual growth of -50.22% and monthly growth of -83.50 %," the DGCA statement on monthly data said.

Indian airlines are staring at a revenue loss of Rs 1.3 trillion between fiscal 2020 and 2022 due to the ongoing covid-19 pandemic that has severely hit demand, rating agency Crisil said in a report earlier this week.

The number of domestic passengers carried by Indian airlines during fiscal year 2020 is expected to be around 78 million to 83 million, similar to fiscal 2016, the report said adding that demand could pick up during the festival season.

Domestic air passenger services resumed from 25 May, after flight operations were grounded by the government for two months to contain the covid-19 pandemic.

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