India’s Domestic Air Numbers Continue to Soar — India Report

The number of domestic air passengers across India in December 2024 is estimated to be about 15.3 million, according to credit ratings agency ICRA. This is an 11% growth from December 2023, and over 17% higher than pre-Covid levels in December 2019. 

There was also a significant growth in airlines’ capacity, ICRA noted. “The airlines’ capacity deployment in December 2024 was higher than December 2023 by 7.5% and by 3.8% over November 2024.”

Between April and December 2024, over 122.5 million domestic passengers traveled through air, up 7% year on year and nearly 13% higher than April-December period in 2019. 

ICRA added that in the first eight months of fiscal year 2025, the international passenger traffic for Indian carriers stood at over 21.8 million, a growth of 15.2% compared to the year before. Pre-Covid, this figure was 15.2 million. 

Future Outlook: ICRA maintained a stable outlook on the Indian aviation industry due to expectations of moderate growth in the domestic air passenger traffic and a relatively stable cost environment in financial year 2025. 

However, it expects the momentum of traffic growth to moderate slightly to 7-10% in the ongoing year as compared to 13% in the previous fiscal year. ICRA attributed this to the high base of the 2024 fiscal year and “lower passenger traffic in the first half of the fiscal year 2025, impacted b