Domestic flight movements saw a monthly increase of 24% to 1,06,450 flights in October and a further narrowing of the year-on-year decline to 45%. Domestic flight movements have progressively increased with the government increasing permissible capacity that airlines can operate from 33% in May'20 to 60% in September'20. This was further increased to 70% on 11 November'20. International flight movements have been limited given the prevailing restrictions on their operations.
Domestic aircraft movement was at a fifteen-year low in first seven months of FY21 while number of international flights operated was lowest in nineteen years. On a yearly basis, the domestic flights have been 70% lower while international flights have reduced by 77% during April-October'20.
Improved monthly passenger traffic has led to improved capacity utilisation or passenger load factor (PLF) of airlines. The PLF of the major domestic airlines averaged 66% in October. The PLF of major airlines was significantly lower than the pre-pandemic (February'20) levels of average 88%.
International air passenger traffic has decreased by 92% during April-October'20 v/s that in April-October'19 while domestic air travel has reduced by 80% during this period. The overall passenger traffic during the first seven months of 2020-21 has been the lowest in sixteen years.
There has been a sequential improvement in total freight traffic with October'20 witnessing an 8% growth over September'20. The year-on-year contraction in freight traffic has narrowed on a sustained basis from 41% in June'20 to 14% in October'20.
The decline in freight traffic during the seven months to October'20 has been sharper in the case of domestic cargo at 46% as against the 36% fall in the case of international cargo. Despite lower number of international flights, share of international freight has been higher as suspension of international passenger flights does not extend to cargo flights.