Domestic air passenger traffic in February down 31% from 2019

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New Delhi: Domestic airline passenger traffic in India was 30.8% less in February 2021 as compared to the corresponding period in 2019, said global airlines body IATA on Wednesday. The global passenger traffic was down 74.7% in February as compared to the same month in 2019, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) said. The IATA said it did not make the comparisons with statistics of February 2020 and chose to compare 2021 figures with 2019 figures because of the coronavirus pandemic, which started showing its effect from early last year.

Passenger traffic is measured in revenue passenger kilometres (RPKs), which is calculated by multiplying the number of seats that were filled with passengers to the distance travelled by the flight. Domestic traffic was resilient in India and Brazil, falling by respective 30.8% and 34.9%,  respectively, compared to February 2019, the IATA said in a statement.

“In India, new cases were low in February, and vaccinations have started,” it said. “But cases increased again in March, and the large economic impact from the crisis will delay a return to the strong growth rates of the recent past.” The IATA said it did not make the comparisons with statistics of February 2020 and chose to compare 2021 figures with 2019 figures because of the coronavirus pandemic, which started showing its effect from early last year. The IATA has around 290 airlines as its members, comprising around 82% of the global traffic.