Airlines are seeing a return in passenger volumes - but it’s far from its peak. Although air passenger traffic is up 67.4% YoY in August, rising to 7.7 crore passengers, it is yet to reach the pre-pandemic levels of 14 crore passengers in 2019. 

With monthly airlines data out for the month of August, we take a look at how the industry has fared since restrictions were lifted.

After the government allowed international flights to resume in March, air passenger traffic rose for two consecutive months till May. Interglobe Aviation (Indigo)’s passenger volume took a hit in June and July, before rising 2.1% MoM to 58.3 lakh in August. Despite this rise, the airline’s overall market share fell 120 bps to 57.5%.

Vistara’s number of passengers carried fell almost 3% MoM to 9.8 lakh in August. However it has overtaken Go First in terms of market share, which rose to 9.7% in August.

Go First is in a spot of bother after being overtaken by Vistara for the No. 2 spot. Its total passengers carried rose 8.8% in August, which puts the airline in the third spot in market share at 8.6%, behind Indigo and Vistara. Go First is struggling against the competition - in July it had sunk to fourth in terms of market share, temporarily falling behind Air India. 

A hike in export duty on aviation turbine fuel (ATF) to Rs 9 per litre from Rs 2 per litre might pose a problem for all airlines. Unlike other sectors, where price hikes are taken to offset the rise in input costs, aviation companies cannot increase fares indiscriminately. Supply delays in FY22 and early FY23 have also affected plane availability in the airline industry. Indigo CEO Ronojoy Dutta said that the airline has been struggling with capacity issues, but remains confident that its capacity will grow 13% higher than pre-covid levels over FY23.