The Domestic Air Traffic for India in 2022 Reaches 85.7% of Pre-Pandemic Level

India’s domestic air traffic in 2022 reached 85.7% of the entire pre-Covid level. The recovery of air travel traffic continues since December last year.

Written by: Arjita Gupta

Edited by: Krutarth Ghosalkar

Last Updated: February 07, 2023

The domestic traffic figures for India reached 85.7% of the pre-Covid year to the level of 2019. And in the year 2022, the air travel recovery kept ongoing in December last year, according to the IATA, the global aviation body. In 2022, the total traffic as measured in RPKs or in revenue passenger kilometers, in comparison to 2021, rise happened by 64.4% as per IATA (International Air Transport Association). Also, according to IATA, the full-year 2022 traffic globally stood at 68.5% of the 2019 (pre-pandemic) levels.

But in December 2022, the rise was by 39.7% for the total traffic when compared to that of December 2021, and stood at 76.9% of the entire level of December 2019. Throughout December 2022, the recovery in air travel took place for the full year. The domestic traffic for India hiked by 48.8% in comparison to 2021. It finally reached 85.7% at the 2019 level. In 2022, worldwide international traffic rose by 152.7% compared to 2021, and in contrast to 2019 levels, it reached 62.2%.

The international traffic for December 2022 rose by 80.2% to that of December 2021 statistics and reached 75.1% of the entire traffic for international travel in December 2019. Domestic travel for 2022 was more than in the preceding year. It rose by 10.9% according to IATA. Domestic travel in the year 2022 was at 79.6% of the entire traffic of the year 2019. Compared to 2021, the domestic traffic for 2022 increased by 2.6% and was at 79.9% full of December 2019 traffic.

IATA Director General, Willie Walsh said that the industry has a better shape and strength than at the time it entered, and travel restrictions of COVID-19 were lifted by most governments during the year. Thus, the restoration of freedom to travel helped people to take advantage of it. And with this, expectations for travel momentum continue for the New Year, irrespective of certain governments overreacting to the re-opening of China.

Walsh said that it is important for governments to understand that border closure and travel restrictions do not have much impact in slowing infectious diseases from spreading in the globally interconnected world. But these may rather have a large adverse impact on the livelihoods and lives of people along with an impact on the global economy, which is directly related to the unrestricted movement of goods and people.