Airlines manage to fill half of flights on average; demand to fall further

With homebound students, young professionals, small-time businessmen and workers accounting for most travellers, airlines have managed to operate flights at about 50% occupancy rates, although industry insiders say demand will plunge once the spate of essential travel is over.

Civil aviation minister Hardeep Singh Puri wrote on microblogging platform Twitter that airlines ferried 30,136 passengers on 367 flights till 5 pm on Thursday.

This means airlines are operating with only 82 passengers on average per flight. Most aircraft in India have 180 seats.

The number Puri cited for previous days also threw up similar occupancy numbers.

Load factors for low fare carrier IndiGo, which carries nearly half of India’s domestic passengers, was below 50%, said an IndiGo executive.

“Majority of the travel is from metros to non-metros, primarily cities in the east and northeast like Patna and Guwahati. Those routes are seeing 60% loads or slightly higher. Flights to metros are barely filling more than 40%,” said a senior airline executive on condition of anonymity.

The average loads are closer to 40% for full-service carriers such as Vistara and are coming down for low cost carriers as well.

AirAsia India filled up 51% of its flights on average on Wednesday, down from 55% on Tuesday.

Vistara and AirAsia India did not respond to emails.

As the government suspended flights beginning March 25 as part of a nationwide lockdown to prevent the spread of the Covid-19 virus outbreak, airlines have been forced into drastic cost-cutting measures, such as slashing salaries and terminating employee contracts. Globally, some airlines have already gone bankrupt.

It has not been easy on flyers either.

Many have been forced to shell out more for travel and deal with unexpected cancellations by airlines.

Sindhiya Poddar, a doctor from Delhi, paid Rs 10,700 for an IndiGo flight to her hometown in Guwahati.

Yash Chansoria, a young advertising agency executive, faced ticket cancellations twice in the course of a day before he finally booked a ticket for Mumbai-Delhi on Vistara and an IndiGo flight for Delhi-Amritsar. The two tickets cost more than Rs 10,000.

Although the government has capped ticket prices for the next two weeks, flyers are still finding it expensive.

Swapan Singh Gehlot, a mushroom farmer from Delhi, sent 10 of his workers to Patna, paying for their tickets on an IndiGo flight, with each ticket costing Rs 6,800. Gehlot opted for flights after he realised that trains would only be available after June 15.

Sonu Mulla, a labourer in Mumbai bought tickets for himself and friends on a flight to Kolkata, only to realise that it had been cancelled. IndiGo, later, booked Mulla on another flight.

“I first paid Rs 30,000 for my family and two friends. The ticket price for the latest flight is Rs 27,000. Will I get the remainder back?” – he asked.

Sitangshu Chakraborty, a retired banker who returned to Silchar, Assam from Delhi on a SpiceJet flight said social distancing norms were thrown to the winds once they landed as passengers jostled for space in small shuttles and no one helped even senior citizens pick up bags.

Instances of flyers testing positive for the Covid-19 virus are also likely to affect demand.

A total of at least 15 passengers have been found positive on flighrs. IndiGo confirned 12 cases on four flights since Mondag. SpiceJet on Wednesday confirmed that two of its flyers had tested positive, while Air India and IndiGo had one flyer each testing positive. Still others have tested positive a day or two after landing while being under quarantine.

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