In a first in six years, Indian airports registered negative growth of 1.1% in March as four of the major airports saw a decline in passenger traffic as compared to the same period last year, according to Airports Authority of India data. The airports in the country recorded 2.81 crore passengers in March 2019, which was down from about 2.85 crore passengers in March 2018.
Delhi, the country’s biggest airports in terms of passenger traffic, saw 54.81 lakh passengers in March 2019 as compared to about 60.4 lakh in March 2018, registering a shrinkage of -9.4%. Similarly, Mumbai saw 35.7 lakh passengers, down by 16.2% in the same comparative period. Chennai saw 17.19 lakh passengers which was a dip of 7.4% and Cochin recorded 8.3 lakh passengers — a deceleration of 11.3%.
“The decline in March 2019 is the first instance of year-on-year traffic de-growth in a month since February 2013,” said Harsh Jagnani, vice president and sector head for corporate ratings, ICRA. “Thus, the robust growth trend of last few years, wherein the CAGR had been 17.5%, has been arrested. This can impact revenues and margins for the airports sector, at a time when many of them are undertaking sizeable capex.”
Groundings spur decline
The decline in March was due to multiple factors, primary among them the grounding of Jet Airways fleet of 124 aircraft. The same month also saw 12 Boeing 737 MAXs of SpiceJet being grounded after an outrage globally against the aerospace manufacturer following the Ethiopian Airlines crash.
The Hindu had reported earlier that the growth in passenger traffic at Indian airports for 2018-19 was at a five-year low of 11.6%.
