ICRA has released its figures showing the domestic air passenger traffic in January. As per the data, January’s domestic air passenger traffic plunged approximately 5% in comparison to the figures observed in December 2023.
What was the domestic air passenger traffic in January?
The projected domestic air passenger traffic in January 2024 is approximately 131.1 lakh, marking a decrease of around 5.0% from the December 2023 figure of approximately 137.9 lakh.
However, ICRA noted that the numbers in January still showed a year-on-year growth of 4.5% when compared to the approximately 125.4 lakh seen in January 2023.
10-month figure
ICRA also released the 10-month figure, from April 2023 to January 2024, during which the domestic air passenger traffic reached approximately 1,276.35 lakh, marking a 15% year-on-year increase from the same period in FY2023 (April-January 2023), when it was recorded at 1,110.31 lakh. This figure also represents a growth of about 5% compared to pre-Covid levels in the corresponding period of April-January 2020, which stood at 1,213.85 lakh.
The domestic aviation industry is believed to have operated with a passenger load factor (PLF) of around 91% in January 2024, compared to approximately 85% in January 2023 and roughly 86% in January 2020 (before the onset of Covid-19).
ATF prices
In the fiscal year 2024, aviation turbine fuel (ATF) prices experienced a sequential decline until June 2023. Subsequently, there was a sequential increase in prices until October 2023. However, there was a sequential decrease of 6% in November 2023, followed by 5% in December 2023, 4% in January 2024, and 1% in February 2024. From April 2023 to September 2023, ATF prices were lower year-on-year (YoY). However, there was a YoY increase of 1.3% in October 2023, marking the first such increase in FY2024, driven by rising crude oil prices over the preceding four months. Nevertheless, in November 2023, December 2023, January 2024, and February 2024, ATF prices were lower by 8.3%, 10.5%, 6.4%, and 10.9% YoY, respectively, in line with the trend in crude oil prices.
