Domestic air traffic down 57% in October |
Due to the unprecedented rise in COVID cases, Indian travelers have kept down their air travel as Indian airlines carried only around 5.27 million passengers in October, down 57% year-on-year basis. According to data released by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), passenger traffic, however, rose sequentially with more people taking to the skies as they traveled for the festive season. Scheduled commercial airlines had flown 3.94 million passengers during September. The government also allowed airlines in India to sell seats up to 60% of an aircraft`s capacity on domestic flights during September, up from 45%, for boosting travel. As of now, aircraft are allowed to fly at 70% capacity. Scheduled international commercial flights, however, remain suspended till 30 November. Passenger load factor (PLF) of major scheduled commercial airlines was at 61-74% during October, higher than the 57-73% during September. But this was way below the 76-90% PLF recorded by airlines during October last year. The load factor measures the capacity utilization of transport services, including airlines. Around 49.33 million passengers were carried by domestic airlines during January-October compared with 118.21 million in the previous year, registering a decline of 58.3%.
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