It was for the first time ever in the history of Indian aviation that the Airlines ferried over 5 lakh domestic passengers on a single day on 17th November 2024.
In total for the day, 5,05,412 passengers were ferried through 3,173 domestic flights, going beyond past records in demand for aviation travel. This is only part of a broader pattern, as the indicator of air traffic has been gradually rising over the past two weeks. On November 8, the total number of domestic passengers was 4.9 lakh, and it was 4.96 lakh on November 9. The following days were also very busy, with November 14 and 15 possessing passenger traffic of 4.97 lakhs and 4.99 lakhs, correspondingly; the number reached a historical high on November 17 with 5.00 lakh passengers.
This rush in the skies comes after a relatively muted October, earlier of Diwali, and following the declaration by IndiGo of its Q2-FY25 numbers that showed a return to the red after seven straight profitable quarters. IndiGo said this is akin to the normalization of yields after a high-yield environment. Still, the upsurge in the number of flights after Diwali is commendable, with the wedding season around the corner and traffic shifting from school vacation to festive season travel.
Flight use has remained more or less at 3,161 a day in November, slightly higher than in October but less than during the height of the Diwali festive season. Also, after the merging of Vistara and Air India on 12th November on some of the metro flights, the capacity has been augmented but for a short span by offering Dreamliners.
This has resulted in the availability of more seats even though it’s with the same number of flights. However, some international flights have been canceled in the course of this process. This has furthered the capacity and created a constant stream of passengers, which highlights a promising recovery for Indian aviation.
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