Domestic Air Travel Demand Not Rising Above 45% of Pre-COVID19 Level

Web Stories

One of the sectors severely affected by the COVID-19 crisis is the aviation sector. There are a lot of factors to consider when looking for why the industry hasn’t recouped at the rate analysts and experts believed it would. People who feel like the problem would be over soon are rather optimists than realists. Things are not looking good for the aviation sector. The reason is not that airlines are restricted to operate flights, but entirely something else. Airlines are allowed to operate, but it is the people who are scared to fly. Flights are operating but people just aren’t ready to fly again.

domestic-air-travel-demand-not-rising-airlines

Domestic Air Travel Taking a Hit Because of Scared Passengers

For now, airlines can fly around 1,500 flights on a daily. But they are only operating around 800-900 flights. Even on these flights, around 60% of the seats are only full. The reason behind this is people aren’t ready to board the plane yet. This is not a good sign for most of the airlines still in debt.

A senior government official said, "Airlines are not adding flights because people are not flying due to the fear of Covid-19. Unilateral lockdown announced by some states and quarantine norms in some other are among the reasons that further discourage people from taking flights.”

When the government initially announced that airlines can operate 33% flights, everyone assumed it to be a very short number. But results showed that airlines couldn’t even operate as many as 33% of their flights. Come June, airlines were allowed an extra 12% increase in daily flights. So airlines could now operate up to 45% of their pre-COVID19 domestic flight capacity. But even that didn’t affect domestic air travel in any large manner.

International Air Transport Association (IATA) said that it will take the global aviation industry at least four years to return to its pre-COVID19 capacity. Earlier IATA had predicted it to be three years. But with the aviation sector not showing much improvement, things can get far worse. Only time will tell how fast the industry will recover.

Reported By

Editor-in-Chief

Tanay hails from Bilaspur, Chattisgarh and is a sports and fitness enthusiast. Reading and writing is something which comes to him out of love for the web of magic that words can create.

Recent Comments

  • No Most discussed posts - 1 week ago....!