India domestic air traffic up for third month in August

India's domestic air traffic rose for a third consecutive month in August, after some movement restrictions were eased.

Passenger traffic totalled 6.70mn last month, up by 34pc from July and more than double the level of the same time last year, according to the country's Directorate General of Civil Aviation. But this was still 43pc below passenger numbers of August 2019, indicating that travel is yet to reach pre-pandemic levels perhaps because of strict regulations such as Covid-19 testing and thermal screening.

The month-on-month increase in air traffic was echoed by a rise in domestic jet fuel consumption last month. Jet fuel use rose by 20pc from July to 97,000 b/d, oil ministry data showed earlier in the month, although it was down by 43pc compared with the same month in 2019.

Jet fuel demand rose was 95,000 b/d in the first half of September, around 9pc higher than the same period in July, according to data from state-controlled refiners that account for around 90pc of India's fuel sales. But this was down from 162,000 b/d in the first half of September 2019 prior to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the aviation sector.

By Sathya Narayanan