India's air traffic hits pre-pandemic highs: International traffic up 22.5%

The domestic and international air traffic for the first time exceeded the pre-pandemic mark, recording 153.4 million domestic passengers in 2023-24 and 69.7 million international passengers in the same period, as per CAPA India's recent data.

Notably, the increase in international passengers was more than that of domestic passengers. International passengers recorded a 22.5% uptick in 2023-24 compared to 69.5 million passengers in 2018-19. Meanwhile, Domestic passengers increased by 13.46% compared to 137.6 million passengers in 2018-19.

Recently aviation regulators DGCA also released the summer schedule of flights, increasing the fleet by nearly 6% compared to last year.

Indian Airlines will operate a total of 24,275 weekly domestic flights during the summer schedule starting from March 31.

IndiGo, Air India and Vistara will operate more flights while SpiceJet will reduce departures during the 2024 summer schedule that spans from March 31 to October 26.

In the summer schedule, Indian carriers will connect 37 countries, including the US, the UK, Uzbekistan, Maldives, Georgia and Azerbaijan. The international flights will be operated from 27 domestic airports.

Also Watch: This summer, Indian airlines will operate more domestic flights than they did in 2023