Overall, 2023 had the highest domestic air travel in India, surpassing the numbers from 2019 and showing a strong recovery from the pandemic.
Domestic air traffic reached a record monthly high in December and has surpassed pre-covid levels as more people in India chose air travel, despite rising fares.
There were 91044 flights in December 2023, 3% more than December 2022 when airlines had 88128 departures.
In December 2023, there were 13.8 million domestic air passengers in India, marking an increase of 8.4% from December 2022 and 6.1% from December 2019. Surprisingly, the number of flights operated by airlines was lower despite the higher passenger count. In December 2023, there were 91,044 flights, a 3% increase from December 2022 (88,128 flights).
After a minor scare in November, when the uptick in traffic came to a halt even during Diwali, the air traffic has gained momentum – largely driven by the changing economic climate and periodic but selective sale fares from the airlines.
December saw an average per day passengers of 4.45 lakh, which was higher than the previous month by 22,000 passengers per day. The traffic was driven by the addition of capacity by IndiGo – which wet-leased aircraft, 11 of which are now in operation and from the Tata group which has added capacity.
These good numbers are despite the fact that there were a few bad weather days impacting operations and cancellations. It started with the diversions at Goa due to military aircraft skidding off the runway. Before airlines could recover from that disruption, Delhi weather led to another set of diversions and cancellations for the next two days.
The month and the year have closed on a high note but airlines are already staring at the challenges of 2024, especially IndiGo which will see up to 40 more aircraft being grounded. The other factor which everyone is looking at keenly is the penetration of COVID with its latest variant showing a consistent increase in cases in the neighbourhood including countries which have made travel for Indians “visa-free”. Will the new year revelry result in more cases being recorded in India and its likely impact on traffic?
