‘Airlines ferried a record 5 lakh domestic travellers on Sunday’

Travel industry expects strong demand to continue during the winter season

In a record for domestic air travel, airlines breached the 5-lakh mark in the total number of passengers ferried on a single day on Sunday, with the travel demand fuelled by the ongoing wedding season in tier-2 cities.

The highest single day passenger traffic recorded last year was 4,56,082 on April 30, and in 2022 it was 4,35,500 on December 24, as per an analysis by Ameya Joshi, independent aviation consultant and Founder, Network Thoughts. Online travel portals have reported high demand in the days following Diwali primarily owing to the ongoing wedding season as well as Christmas break next month.

“Indian travellers are on the move this wedding season, with around 35 lakh weddings expected across India between November 23 and December 15, 2024. . Tier-II cities are powering the wedding season this year. Travel to tier 2 and 3 cities in Nov & Dec have seen a significant rise, with Varanasi bookings up by an impressive 265% and Gorakhpur by 109%. Amritsar, Chandigarh and Patna have also recorded an increase of over 70% in flight bookings,” says Aloke Bajpai, Group CEO, ixigo.

Flight bookings to major metro hubs and top leisure destinations such as Delhi, Mumbai, Srinagar, Jaipur, and Goa have also witnessed a strong 70-80% YoY increase.

Interestingly, after a long spell of high airfares post COVID-19 because of the pent-up travel demand, airfares have dipped 20-25% in November and December compared with the last season on routes like Delhi-Bengaluru, Chennai-Kolkata, Delhi-Goa, and Bengaluru-Jaipur further incentivising demand.

This comes at a time of continued fleet expansion by IndiGo and Air India with both adding a new aircraft to their fleet every week on an average. As a result, there were a total 3,173 flights on Sunday as compared with 2,767 flights on November 26, 2022.

The industry expects Sunday’s figures to be surpassed next month which typically sees the highest travel demand even though the robust passenger numbers have pushed up last-minute fares.

“We expect strong demand to continue in the winter season,” said Gaurav Patwari, VP, Air Category, Cleartrip.

Published - November 18, 2024 11:04 pm IST