India domestic traffic continues decline in crisis-hit April

Indian carriers saw domestic passenger numbers decline again in April, as the country plunged into crisis amid a resurgent wave of coronavirus infections. Data released by the Indian Directorate-General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) shows that the country’s carriers flew 5.7m passengers in April, a 27% drop compared to March passenger numbers. The DGCA notes that there was no year-on-year comparison, as India banned all domestic flying in April last year, during the first wave of the coronavirus outbreak. State-owned Air India flew just 685,000 passengers on its domestic network, 25% lower month on month. Other private carriers — including low-cost carriers like IndiGo and Spicejet — carried just over 5 million passengers in the month, a 27% decline compared to March. Passenger load factors also fell in April, though the DGCA attributes it to the end of the vacation period in the country. Air India’s domestic passenger load factor tumbled nearly 18 percentage points to 52% in April. Other major carriers reported lower declines: Spicejet’s domestic load factor fell about 5 percentage points month on month to 70.8%, while full-service carrier Vistara saw its passenger load factor fall nearly 10 percentage points to 54.6%. IndiGo, meanwhile, reported a 7.7 percentage point decline in domestic passenger load factors, to 58.7%. <br/>