Restoration of domestic air travel after COVID -19 concerns

Tuesday, February 21, 2023

According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), Indian domestic air travel has significantly improved. This month the recovery in air travel continued in December, 2022 as announced early this month.

Also in India, with concerns of new COVID -19 outbreaks fading, airlines saw a significant improvement in domestic air travel as well as revenue.

As stated by IATA, India’s domestic RPK’s (revenue passenger kilometers) rose 48.8% last year compared with 2021. More significantly, December 2022 saw air traffic almost matching December 2019’s mark, falling shy by just 3.6%.

In 2022, Indian domestic ASK rose 30.1% compared with a year ago. For the other Asia Pacific domestic markets, domestic traffic measured by RPK rebounded by 75.9% in Japan compared with 2021 to achieve 74.1% of 2019 levels.

Australia experienced a rebound, with RPKs recovering to 81.2% of 2019 levels.

With China still very much under COVID – 19 restrictions in 2022, it is therefore not surprising that in the middle kingdom it has 6.5% of the world’s domestic passenger market, RPK and ASK fell 39.8% and 35.2% respectively compared with 2021.

Mr Lim Ching Kiat, Executive Vice President of Air Hub and Cargo Development Changi Airport Group exclaimed that in the past. Two years, they strengthened their airport offerings and continued to engage their airline partners in anticipation of travel revival.

Changi Airport community’s efforts have paid off – the airport is now leading the Asia Pacific region in travel recovery. They look forward to welcoming more flights in the coming months.

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