There is nothing like getting on a plane

After two years of Covid restrictions and grounded fleet, airlines and airports worldwide are scrambling to cope with the growing number of travellers. While it will mean a remarkable turnaround for the industry, it has brought in its wake a desperate effort to hire staff, manage employees, and ramp up operations. An insight into the worldwide impact of the growing passenger numbers.

Morgan Stanley Research report in 2021 released a report that the Indian aviation industry will bounce back to 80 percent of pre-covid capacity during October-December as about 9.2 crore domestic passengers are expected to take to the skies during this financial year 2022, Around 14.4 crore passengers are likely to travel by air during FY2023.

"Overall, we estimate 92 million (9.2 crores), domestic passengers, in India in FY22 vs 141 million (14.1 crores) in FY20," the report said adding that India can witness 50 percent, 65 percent, 83 percent and 90 percent of average pre-Covid capacity in Q1, Q2, Q3 and Q4, respectively, assuming that there is no further impact from the pandemic.

The fact on the ground, though, is that all these numbers have fallen by the wayside thanks to the unprecedented rush for air travel. Something that is now euphemistically being described as 'revenge travel.

In April in an interview with the news agency ANI, Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia had said, "It was a very difficult time in the previous years due to the Covid pandemic. We have seen over 3.7, 3.8 and 3.9 lakhs passengers in a day over the last 10 days. I'm confident that travelling, both domestically and internationally, in India is coming back strong.

IndiGo CEO Rono Dutta told a TV news channel in an interview that air travel demand had grown stronger than pre-Covid. "Demand has been very strong, now we are way above Covid level... I can say with conviction that we have recovered from Covid, Dutta said and added: "We are on the cusp of profitability (IndiGo)... need a little bit of help on the cost side. We have a glimmer of hope; a lot depends on crude oil prices... Oil prices need to behave." As a result, the airline is also witnessing more passengers.