HITTING AN AIR POCKET
THE DOMESTIC aviation sector is in the doldrums. If last year wasn’t bad enough, the second wave of the pandemic has left the carriers in utter ruin. Take a look at the numbers. In seven months to July 2021, the domestic traffic more than halved — to 39.34 million — compared to the same period in 2019.
Aviation consultancy CAPA India says the two waves of Covid-19 have created a high level of solvency risk for most airlines, which could impact the entire industry, including airports. “After taking into account the impact of the second wave, our model projects domestic traffic of 80-95 million passengers in FY22, up from 52.5 million in FY21, but well below the 140 million in FY20. This projection does not take into account a third wave [of Covid-19]. We expect that Indian airlines will lose a consolidated $4.1 billion in FY22, similar to that in FY21,” says CAPA India Airline Outlook FY2022 report.
“Despite the increase in traffic in June-July, there is no guarantee that this trend will continue. Countries like the US, for example, have fully vaccinated more than 50 per cent of their population and are still witnessing record Covid cases. Prior to Covid, approximately 350,000 passengers were flying daily. At present, this number is about 200,000. If we
