Leisure travel to see surge during Diwali

New Delhi: After seeing “good enough” demand for air travel during Navratri, India’s travel industry expects a significant rise in aviation business this Diwali, with searches for leisure travel up by nearly 70% from October.

“Travel during Navratri and Dussehra this year was mostly concentrated towards metro cities compared to leisure destinations. Diwali flight travel searches have surpassed Navratri. Leisure travel demand for Diwali is at its peak, witnessing a 67% month-on-month increase in searches,” said Aloke Bajpai, co-founder and group chief executive of Ixigo.

So far, domestic air traffic in October was around 11.4 million passengers between 1 and 28 October. Compared to the pre-pandemic level of October 2019, when there were 12.3 million passengers, the growth is nominal. Notably, the highest daily air traffic for this month remains below the record 438,000 passenger mark.

The capacity constraint in the Indian aviation sector is reflected in higher airfares, limiting demand and intensifying competition. So far, the highest daily air traffic and most daily departures were recorded before the suspension of Go First at 456,082 passengers on 30 April and 3,054 departures on 27 April.

“Overall, the air traffic during Navratri, Dussehra has been good enough to match the festive season. Some sectors probably might not have fared well as expected, it seems. (Considering the ICC Men’s Cricket) World Cup is in progress, could that be a reason? Airfare could be another reason as new fast trains connecting metro cities have been introduced recently, and people might have shifted their preference,” said P.P. Khanna, a board member of the Federation of Associations in Indian Tourism and Hospitality.

Airfares rose 60-70% on domestic routes and 20-25% for short-haul international destinations over last year, according to travel firm Thomas Cook.

“India’s migrant working population continues to leverage extended weekends and public holidays to return home, and this is leading to an increase in flight loads and airfares from metros to mini-metros and tier 2-3 cities,” Indiver Rastogi, president and group head of global business travel, Thomas Cook (India) and SOTC Travel, said.