International air passenger traffic in the country reached 79% of pre-Covid levels in June, three months after the government fully reopened overseas flights.
“The steep ramp-up in international traffic during the last three months is supported by opening of major international destinations, easing of travel restrictions and increase in aircraft capacity deployment. Overall, ICRA expects international passenger traffic to reach 90-92% of the pre-Covid levels by end of FY2023 and cross pre-COVID levels in FY2024," Abhishek Lahoti, senior analyst, Corporate Ratings, ICRA, said about India's performance.
But domestic passenger traffic witnessed a decline. It was at 91% of pre-COVID levels in June 2022 compared with 98% in April and May, which ICRA said was due to the end of summer vacation, reopening of schools and reduced leisure travel.
Easing of restrictions in Asia is also driving recovery in air traffic globally. Global airlines body International Air Transport Association (IATA) also released its global traffic report for May, which showed international traffic at 64% of May 2019 levels.
“Many major international route areas – including within Europe, and the Middle East-North America routes - are already exceeding pre-COVID-19 levels, said Willie Walsh, IATA’s Director General. “The major exception to the optimism of this rebound in travel is China, which saw a dramatic 73.2% fall in domestic travel compared to the previous year. Its continuing zero-COVID policy is out-of-step with the rest of the world,” he added.
He blamed the "knee-jerk COVID-19 policy flipflops" for the travel mess in Europe and America where airlines had been forced to cancel flights due to a short supply of pilots and other aviation staff.
