New Delhi, Aug 9 (IANS): Domestic air passenger traffic in India witnessed a growth of 8.6 per cent (year-on-year) at 131.4 lakh in the month of July, compared to 121 lakh in the same month last year, a report showed on Friday.

Moreover, the domestic air traffic was higher by 10 per cent than pre-Covid levels of 119.1 lakh in July 2019, according to the report by credit rating agency ICRA.

From April to July (four-month period), domestic air passenger traffic was 533.4 lakh, reflecting a YoY growth of 5.2 per cent against the same period last year (506.9 lakh), and 13.2 per cent higher than the pre-Covid level of 471.1 lakh in the same four month period in FY20.

In the first quarter of the current fiscal, the international passenger traffic for Indian carriers stood at 80.5 lakh with a YoY growth of 16.7 per cent, against 68.9 lakh (April-July period in FY24) and higher than the pre-Covid levels of 54.1 lakh by 48.7 per cent.

The continued recovery in domestic and international air passenger traffic, with a relatively stable cost environment and expectations of the trend continuing in FY2025, ICRA said its outlook on the Indian aviation industry is stable.

“The momentum in air passenger traffic witnessed in FY2024 is expected to continue into FY2025, though further expansion in yields from the current levels may be limited,” the rating agency noted.

The capacity deployment for July was higher by 5.2 per cent over July 2023 (91,632 departures in July 2024 against 87,086 departures in July 2023). Further, the number of departures in July 2024 were higher by 0.2 per cent on a sequential basis.

The month of April recorded the highest single-day traffic of 470,751, surpassing the previous historic highs. For July 2024, the average daily departures were 2,956, higher than the average daily departures of 2,809 in July 2023, the report mentioned.

According to the report, the pace of recovery in industry earnings is likely to be gradual owing to the high fixed-cost nature of the business.