India’s domestic air passenger traffic at record high in 2023

Last year was the first full year since the outbreak of the pandemic, which brought the aviation industry to its knees globally.

“The resilience in traffic comes at a time when airlines have not been able to deploy full capacity owing to a mix of financial and engine issues at various airlines and suspension of services by one airline (Go First). This has led to higher load factors across airlines in 2023,” the report said. The data suggests that the industry has fully recovered from the impact of Go First’s grounding. The airline has not operated since early May after it voluntarily filed for insolvency.

The official monthly aviation traffic data, which is released by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), has not been released yet for December 2023. It is expected to be released in the next two to three weeks.

On an average, Indian carriers ferried 4.17 lakh passengers a day on domestic flights in 2023, and the average daily domestic flight count stood at 2,891. Except November, the domestic air passenger traffic in all months of 2023 was higher than the corresponding months of 2019.

On the outlook for 2024, the report said, “With a 5 per cent growth over 2023 (same as last year), the domestic air traffic would reach 15.97 crore. A more realistic figure of 10 per cent growth will take the traffic to 16.72 crore domestic passengers while 15 per cent growth—which has been recorded in the past—will take the domestic air traffic to 17.48 crore domestic passengers in 2024”.

India is the third-largest and fastest-growing aviation market in the world, and has huge potential for growth as a sizable section of the population remains untapped. With primary players IndiGo and the Air India group embarking on massive network and capacity expansion plans with mega aircraft orders, the sector is expected to witness significant growth over the coming years.