Covid surge: Indian carriers reduce seat capacity by 24 lakh this month, says OAG

NEW DELHI: The Covid catastrophe unfolding in India has virtually erased the gradual recovery made by the country’s

aviation

sector in the past few months. With both domestic and international air travel nosediving, the number of flights operated on the busiest international routes and within the country have fallen sharply.


“While overall in Asia, carriers are adding capacity – 12 lakh seats this month (May 2021) – this masks the reduction taking place at a regional level. In South Asia, seats have fallen by 15.1% this month as a result of the significant increase in Covid cases in India (24 lakh seats removed this month versus last month), and to a smaller extent in South East Asia, where seats have fallen by 9%, which is mostly being driven by reductions in Indonesia and Thailand,” UK-based air consultancy firm OAG global data for May 2021 says.

India-UAE, one of the world’s busiest international sectors in terms of traffic, has seen capacity deployment — in terms of the number of flights and seats offered as per aircraft used — by airlines sharply fall.

UAE

has from April 25 indefinitely restricted entry of travellers from India due to the Covid outbreak here.

According to OAG data, seats offered between the two countries have dropped by almost 20% this month over April, 2021. While India-UAE remains the world’s third busiest (in terms of capacity deployment) international route, it is the only one in the list of OAG’s top 20 pairs to witness a fall in capacity deployment so far this month over April, 2021.

The sharp fall in both domestic and international flights as a result of the Covid catastrophe currently unfolding in India has seen IndiGo drop to number 10 of the list of world’s biggest airlines in terms of the number of flights operated in May 2021. IndiGo had climbed upto number 6 of this list in the earliest months when the pandemic situation in India was improving, leading to a gradual increase in flights being operated. However, the relentless Covid surge has erased all signs of recovery seen in past few months by Indian aviation.

As a result, Delhi has not been able to make it to OAG’s list of top 20 airports globally in May 2021, in terms of seats deployed by airlines operating to and from there.

India-UAE is the third busiest international sector with 9.7 lakh seats deployed by airlines in May 2021. Mexico-USA (3.4 lakh) and Puerto Rico-USA (10.8 lakh) are the two busiest, as per OAG.

IndiGo operated almost 25% less flights in May at 26,060 and is at number 10 this month. The big US carriers —

American Airlines

(1.6 lakh),

Delta

(1.2 lakh),

United

(94,111) and Southwest (89,297) — are the four biggest airlines this month followed by Chinese carriers at the next three spots —

China Southern

(69,477), China Eastern (67,316) and

Air China

(44,062). America’s

Alaska Airlines

and China Express Airlines are at number 8 and 9, respectively. This means, five US and four Chinese airlines are in the top 10 list this month.

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