India to raise domestic flight capacity

The Indian government is planning to allow domestic airlines to increase flight capacity and sees air traffic returning to pre-pandemic levels in two to three months, officials at the civil aviation ministry said.

Domestic air passenger numbers rose to 270,000 on 2,179 flights on 10 January, the highest since domestic flights resumed with around 30,000 passengers on 25 May last year after a two month lockdown, said aviation minister Hardeep Puri.

India's domestic air passenger traffic in November rose to 6.3mn from 5.27mn passengers in October, but remained 51pc lower compared with around 13mn a year earlier. Passenger numbers in January-November fell to 55.7mn from 131mn a year earlier after a Covid-19 lockdown grounded planes for a few months. India's Covid-19 case count stands at 10.5mn, second only to the US.

More people flying augurs well for jet fuel demand. Jet fuel consumption fell to 109,000 b/d in December from 185,000 b/d a year earlier but rose from 99,000 b/d from November. Jet fuel demand fell to 92,000 b/d in calendar 2020 from 177,000 b/d a year earlier. Jet fuel demand is forecast to shrink by over half to 81,000 b/d in the April 2019-March 2020 fiscal from 173,000 b/d, according to the oil ministry.

Indian state-controlled refiners increased jet fuel rates to 50,979 rupees/kilolitre ($695/kl) during the first half of January in Delhi from Rs49,161/kl in the second half of December, according to state-controlled refiner IOC.

By S Dinakar