COVID unlock: Domestic air travel sees improvement in February

February 2022 saw an improvement in domestic air traffic after a dismal growth in January due to Omicron. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), noted that there has been a 20% growth in February in comparison to January 2022.

Domestic carriers in India carried 76.96 lakh passengers, thereby registering a 20% growth in traffic. In January, there was a 17% decrease in growth due to Omicron. These combined numbers of January and February are still lower in comparison to the first two months of 2021. Last year, India's domestic airlines carried over 155 lakh passengers in the first two months. This year, that number was only 141 lakh. The Omicron variant of COVID 19 gave a massive scare to the world, as most countries went under another lockdown. India too went through the same as the infected numbers grew by the day.
The passenger load factor also increased in February in comparison to January 2022. SpiceJet registered the highest load factor, followed by Vistara, then GoFirst, and finally, Indigo.

India is currently running scheduled domestic and going ahead with international flights soon, and is seeing a growth in passenger demand. The domestic growth is certainly a thing to look up to as the airline industry gets back into recovery mode. Notably, airline and hospitality were the two most affected sectors during the COVID pandemic.