Domestic air passenger traffic grew 15 per cent year-on-year to around 129 lakh in December 2022 but remained 1 per cent lower than the pre-pandemic level (December 2019), rating agency Icra said on Thursday.
Icra has also maintained a 'Negative' outlook on the Indian aviation industry.
In the April-December period of the current fiscal, domestic passenger traffic is estimated at around 986 lakh, registering around 63 per cent year-on-year growth and lower by approximately 9 per cent compared to April-December 2019 (pre-COVID levels), it said. At the same time, the airlines deployed slightly higher capacity (less than 1 per cent) in the previous month over the year-ago period, the rating agency said, adding that it, however, was lower by around 7 per cent than the pre-COVID levels.
According to Icra, the domestic aviation industry operated at an estimated passenger load factor of around 91 per cent in December 2022.