Fewer flights take off in Jan as airlines face headwinds

January saw fewer aircraft taking to the skies and steeper fares as numerous planes await engines and repairs, portending bad times for travellers in the year ahead.

- Anu Sharma

The number of domestic flights fell 2.3% year-on-year (y-o-y) in January 2024 to around 187,660; it was also down nearly 3% compared to December, per data from Airports Authority of India (AAI).

Experts said this signals a challenging year for Indian airlines, as they contend with supply-chain issues, unreliable engines, grounded aircraft, and overcrowding at airports.

The fall in January is the first in nearly two years, and a huge change from last January, when flights rose 44.2% y-o-y and 2.5% on-month. The last time the number of flights fell in any month was in February 2022. At the time, the scare of the omicron variant of the coronavirus impacted travel, and domestic flights dipped 10.6% to 121,850.

Total domestic aircraft movement in January 2020 (just before the first lockdown in March) was up 3.2% y-o-y at 195,210 flights and up 0.5% compared to December 2019.