IndiGo and Tata Sons-owned Air India are expanding their international footprint aggressively, yet passengers who flew to and from overseas this summer lagged behind 2019 levels as foreign carriers including the big Gulf players are yet to bring back their pre-Covid aircraft capacity.
From April to June in 2023, IndiGo ferried a total of 27.3 lakh passengers, up from 14.97 lakh in the same summer months four years ago—an increase of 82.5%, according to DGCA data. During this period the airline added 87 aircraft to its fleet to become a 304-aircraft strong airline and expanded its international destinations from 18 to 32, including Istanbul, Ras-al-Khaimah and Bahrain. The airline has also wet-leased two 400-seater Boeing 777s from Turkish Airlines, allowing passengers to connect to 36 destinations in Europe via Istanbul.
Tata Sons-owned Air India, Air India Express and Vistara, which collectively enjoy the largest international market share among Indian airlines (53%), altogether saw a 22% increase in their international passengers in the last four years. This was primarily due to Vistara starting international operations to the U.S. and Air India adding flights to Europe and the U.S. as well East Asia.
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As a result, Indian airlines ferried 29.7% more passengers on their international flights during the 2023 summer at 69.92 lakh as compared to 2019 summer despite Go First discontinuing flights from May and the grounding of nearly half of SpiceJet’s 65 planes slashing down its international passenger traffic by 33%.
International airlines, on the other hand, have seen a 23% decline in traffic to and from India as many are yet to restore pre-pandemic aircraft capacity levels for Indian destinations. Six Indian carriers enjoy a combined share of 46.8% of the total international passenger traffic from India, and 78 foreign carriers the remaining 54.2% share.
Gulf carriers such as Emirates, Etihad, Qatar Airways, Oman Air, and Saudia have 11% less seat capacity for India in 2023 as compared to 2019, according to OAG Aviation’s Head of Asia, Mayur Patel. These airlines represent 19% of total international capacity to and from India, which include both domestic and foreign players.
Emirates is the only airline among them that has seen a capacity growth of 3%, but its international passengers from and to India lagged behind 2019 levels by 10.7%—it recorded 13.4 lakh passengers in the April-June 2023 period, shows DGCA data. Etihad has seen a decline in aircraft capacity of 14% according to OAG. But its India international figure of 7.3 lakh passengers in April-June 2023 was a staggering 44% less than April-June 2019. Qatar’s capacity is down by 2% and its passenger traffic of 5.02 lakh passengers has seen a drop of 10.8%. Oman Air capacity has shrunk by 57% and passenger numbers are down by 58.5% to 3.17 lakh and Saudi Arabian Airlines has seen capacity drop by 26% and passenger traffic by 35.6% to 2.65 lakh passengers.
Singapore International Airlines and its low-cost subsidiary Scoot, which represent 5.4% of international market share from India, grew their capacity for India by 3.8% in 2023 compared to 2019 including the capacity consolidation due to the merger with SilkAir, as per OAG data. As a result, SIA added 36.3% passenger traffic while Scoot’s share remained unchanged.
Its General Manager for India Sy Yen Chen said, in an e-mail response to queries from The Hindu, that India was the “fastest growing [market] pre-pandemic and now that international travel has resumed so rapidly, we are hopeful that this trend will continue.” The airline has restored pre-pandemic level of services from all eight Indian cities it operates to, as well as resumed its Airbus A380 services from both Mumbai and Delhi. SIA operates 96 weekly flights to eight cities, and Scoot connects six cities with a total of 44 weekly flights.
Among the European carriers, the notable changes are from Air France-KLM which added 30% capacity, as per OAG data. This has resulted in Air France seeing a 52.2% increase in passengers from India between 2019 and 2023, and KLM an increase of 74.5%. The combined entity accounts for 1.93% of international capacity to and from India and connects passengers to Amsterdam and Paris with onward flights to destinations across Europe, the Americas and Africa.
Air France-KLM operates to four Indian gateways, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi and Mumbai, and during the upcoming winter months it will be operating upto 49 weekly flights into Amsterdam and Paris. In February 2024, Air France will operate three additional frequencies on routes Delhi-Paris and Mumbai-Paris, moving from 7 to 10 weekly flights on the back of a growing demand from India across all passenger segments.
“The overall outlook for India is very positive and optimistic. India has a very strong GDP, making the country an important destination for a wide range of investments across sectors. The Indian aviation market is growing at a fast pace and has huge potential. There is a big appetite for international travel. With all these positive factors, India is an important destination for the world,” Air France-KLM’s spokesperson Claude Sarre said in an e-mail.
Virgin Atlantic has seen a 63% growth in capacity for India and a 1.8 time increase in passengers to 1.35 lakh passengers in April-June 2023. The British carrier enjoys a market share of 0.9% from India.
Germany’s Lufthansa though has seen a decline in capacity from India by 16% due to wider supply chain constraints. With an international market share of 1.75%, it saw 2.61 lakh passengers in the summer quarter, which is 28.5% less than pre pandemic levels. But from November it will start five weekly flights from Munich to Bengaluru, and thrice weekly flights from Frankfurt to Hyderabad from January. It has also announced that it will be returning the Airbus A380 for flights to Delhi from next summer.
With international airlines gradually restoring capacity as well as Air India likely to add 10-12 Boeing 737 MAX8s and 5-6 A350s, the full-year projected capacity is expected to be positive with a growth of 0.4% compared to 2019 level, according to OAG.
