With second wave of COVID-19 subsiding gradually, number of people taking flight has crossed one lakh mark after more than a month.
According to data released on Sunday by Ministry of Civil Aviation, 1,07,371 passengers departed to their destinations in 1,124 flights on Jun 12. Due to second wave of pandemic the number domestic passengers had dropped below 40,000 in mid May. For the first time in more than a month’s time it has risen above one lakh mark. There were two prominent reasons for the sharp fall in number of passengers – people were apprehensive of traveling for the fear of infection, and at the same time many receiving state governments had put stricter conditions for fliers.
Scheduled passenger flights in the country were completely banned in March last year. After a gap to two months domestic scheduled flights were resumed on May 25, 2020. By February 2021, average daily number of passengers reached to 2.80 lakh. After the second wave of COVID-19 this number dropped down to 1.91 lakh in April. Official data for May 2021 is yet to be released, but credit rating agency ICRA has estimated the monthly figure to be 20 lakh which is less than 70,000 passengers per day.
