Indian airports could see total number of domestic and international passengers return to pre-pandemic levels by the end of financial year 2023, according to a forecast by the Airports Authority of India (AAI).
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In FY20, various airports saw a total of 34.1 crore passengers. During the pandemic, these numbers fell by almost 66% in FY21 to 11.5 crore passengers.
The AAI estimated that a total of 19.9 crore passengers for this fiscal. Its forecast indicates that the traffic could be almost at pre-pandemic levels by the end of FY23 and reach 33.8 crore - 99.1% of FY20 passenger numbers. From March 27, India has also removed restrictions on international flights, allowing airlines to plan pre-pandemic level of flight operations. This information was provided by Minister of State for Civil Aviation V.K. Singh in Rajya Sabha.
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According to the AAI, various Indian airports could see passenger numbers rise to 44.8 crore by FY25 as compared to 34.1 crore in FY20.
Estimates by rating agency ICRA indicated total (international and domestic) passenger traffic may rise 68-70% to 31.7-32 crore by the end of FY23. While domestic passenger traffic is expected to reach pre-pandemic levels in the next fiscal after growing 64-66%, international traffic will expand 100-105% but reach pre-Covid levels only by 2024, provided the impact of future Covid waves is low, ICRA said.
“While operating profitability is expected to improve sequentially in FY2023 to 29-30% from 18-19% in FY2022, it is still likely to remain lower than pre-Covid level of 40% with full recovery likely in FY2024 only,” said Rajeshwar Burla, group head, Corporate Ratings, ICRA.
Minister Singh also told Parliament that almost 19,200 people employed in airlines, airports, ground-handling companies and air cargo companies lost jobs during the pandemic; this accounted for 10% of the total 1.9 lakh jobs in these sectors.