International aircraft movement in India fell on the month in June as the borders of many countries remained closed to curb the spread of Covid-19, while some countries closed their borders especially to travellers from India.
A surge in Covid-19 cases has led to as many as 21 countries either banning flights or issuing guidelines for passengers travelling from India, according to an advisory issued by India's Bureau of Immigration.
International aircraft movements fell by 12.6pc from May to 10,350 last month, although this was up by 22pc from the same month last year, according to data compiled by state-owned Airports Authority of India from all operational Indian airports.
International and domestic flights were grounded in June 2020 when India was under a total lockdown to fight the pandemic.
Passenger traffic on the international route was mostly unchanged on the month at 520,000 in June, the data showed.
Coronavirus cases totalled 31.4mn in India today, according to Johns Hopkins University data, making it the second most-infected nation globally. But daily new cases started to fall last month, hovering around 40,000 this month from over 400,000 in early May.
Indian consumption of jet fuel, the most affected transport fuel from the impact of the pandemic, fell by 0.5pc on the month to 68,000 b/d in June and by 60pc from June 2019, oil ministry data showed.
But jet fuel demand rose in the first half of July to 69,000 b/d from 58,000 b/d over the same period in June. But this was well below 158,000 b/d in pre-pandemic July 2019, according to data from state-controlled refiners that account for around 90pc of the country's fuel sales.
Indian state-refiners have raised jet fuel prices for the second half of July by 2.3pc from earlier in the month.
