‘Visiting friends & relatives’ leads to 5-fold rise in domestic flyers post 2nd wave at IGIA – Times of India
NEW DELHI: Post the deadly second wave of Covid, India’s air travel is showing signs of revival again. The busiest airport, Delhi’s IGIA, says it has handled 90,000 passengers daily in the first 10 days of this month — up over five times from the numbers seen in May 2021, the peak month of the deadly second wave.
Travel segment “visiting family and relatives (VFR)” has been the biggest reasons for the recovery in airport footfalls, followed by vacationers.
Business travel, with several offices still closed, remains subdued, says Delhi International Airport Ltd (DIAL).
“In June 2021, most of those who flew were in VFR category (48 %), followed by vacationers (25%) and business travellers (19%),” it said.
In the current pandemic situation and improved vaccination numbers, DIAL expects domestic traffic to reach pre-Covid level by March 2023 end. And international may get there a year later.
Airlines and airports in India have taken the required steps to ensure safe travels during the pandemic with focus on enhanced hygiene.
The top 10 domestic destinations for Delhi flyers this May and June were Mumbai, Patna, Bangalore, Pune, Hyderabad, Leh, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Kolkata and Jammu and Kashmir.
In May, IGIA’s average daily passenger numbers stood at 18,000, which rose to 62,000 in June.
“Once the severe impact of second Covid wave eased, people felt the need to travel to their respective homes/base locations. Thus, VFR travel has pushed up the passenger numbers. On business travel front, there has been a slight pickup in demand (with gradual opening of offices) but it is still very much subdued. The leisure travel (tourists) has also picked up, with opening of tourist destinations across the country,” it said.
Scheduled domestic air travel was allowed to resume after a two month suspension on May 25, 2020. “In June 2020, majority of air travellers were VFR, followed by business travellers. While those going for vacation was only 2%. During pre-Covid times (in June 2019), around 44% flyers were vacationers, while 41% were of VFR category,” the DIAL statement said.
The government allowing airlines to add more domestic flights contributed to the growth in numbers. Airlines are at present allowed to operate upto 72.5% of their pre-Covid domestic schedules.
In July 2021, Delhi Airport handled around 22.9 lakh passengers, which is 60% less than 58 lakh handled in the same month in 2019.
Travel segment “visiting family and relatives (VFR)” has been the biggest reasons for the recovery in airport footfalls, followed by vacationers.
Business travel, with several offices still closed, remains subdued, says Delhi International Airport Ltd (DIAL).
“In June 2021, most of those who flew were in VFR category (48 %), followed by vacationers (25%) and business travellers (19%),” it said.
In the current pandemic situation and improved vaccination numbers, DIAL expects domestic traffic to reach pre-Covid level by March 2023 end. And international may get there a year later.
Airlines and airports in India have taken the required steps to ensure safe travels during the pandemic with focus on enhanced hygiene.
The top 10 domestic destinations for Delhi flyers this May and June were Mumbai, Patna, Bangalore, Pune, Hyderabad, Leh, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Kolkata and Jammu and Kashmir.
In May, IGIA’s average daily passenger numbers stood at 18,000, which rose to 62,000 in June.
“Once the severe impact of second Covid wave eased, people felt the need to travel to their respective homes/base locations. Thus, VFR travel has pushed up the passenger numbers. On business travel front, there has been a slight pickup in demand (with gradual opening of offices) but it is still very much subdued. The leisure travel (tourists) has also picked up, with opening of tourist destinations across the country,” it said.
Scheduled domestic air travel was allowed to resume after a two month suspension on May 25, 2020. “In June 2020, majority of air travellers were VFR, followed by business travellers. While those going for vacation was only 2%. During pre-Covid times (in June 2019), around 44% flyers were vacationers, while 41% were of VFR category,” the DIAL statement said.
The government allowing airlines to add more domestic flights contributed to the growth in numbers. Airlines are at present allowed to operate upto 72.5% of their pre-Covid domestic schedules.
In July 2021, Delhi Airport handled around 22.9 lakh passengers, which is 60% less than 58 lakh handled in the same month in 2019.
For all the latest business News Click Here
Denial of responsibility! TechAI is an automatic aggregator around the global media. All the content are available free on Internet. We have just arranged it in one platform for educational purpose only. In each content, the hyperlink to the primary source is specified. All trademarks belong to their rightful owners, all materials to their authors. If you are the owner of the content and do not want us to publish your materials on our website, please contact us by email – [email protected]. The content will be deleted within 24 hours.
