In Feb, airlines carried more flyers per day than ever before

A record high number of Indians travelled by domestic airlines per day on an average in February, surpassing the previous high of November 2019 before the pandemic-related threat brought the aviation industry to a standstill, shows a Mint analysis of data from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).

However, February being a shorter month, the full-month figure remained below the record 13 million hit in December 2019. In fact, February had only the 11th highest monthly air traffic ever (12.07 million).

The record daily average indicates a strong recovery for the Indian aviation sector despite limited capacity and rising airfares.

An average 431,034 people travelled in domestic flights per day in February, up 6.5% from January’s 404,584 and higher than the previous record high of 430,337 witnessed in November 2019. The analysis looked at data since 2013 available with the DGCA.

Domestic aircraft movement has been consistently rising as the pandemic fears have dissipated, more significantly since February 2022.

The three months with the highest ever monthly domestic air traffic were December 2019, November 2019 and January 2020—the months before the pandemic arrived. Those were also the months that recorded the highest average daily flyers, but these figures were less than last month.

The rebound from the pandemic first began getting clear three months ago when daily air passenger traffic in India touched new post-covid highs, crossing the 400,000 mark for two consecutive days on 27 and 28 November 2022, Mint reported.

Cities in the country's southern region received the most footfalls (39%) compared to other regions as a share of total travellers within the country.