The travel and aviation industry has taken a severe hit in terms of passenger traffic and flight departures over the past year and a half. CNBC-TV18’s Anu Sharma caught up with Videh Jaipuriar, CEO of Delhi International Airport, to understand the impact of the second wave and the subsequent recovery in the aviation sector.

Jaipuriar said though it would take a long time for passenger traffic to come back to pre-COVID levels, little bit of revival seen in the domestic segment. From about 18,000 passengers including both departure and arrival, the airport has reached to about 60,000-62,000. However, flight operations have not gone up in same proportion, which is currently at nearly 260 compared to May number of 160 departures, he added.

The passenger load factor, which had dropped to below 100 a flight, has now revived to nearly 140 PLF in each flight, which is close to the pre-Covid levels.

Internationally, while many countries have still not reopened after the second COVID wave, the operations have remained at 30-35 departures per day. Jaipuriar said although discussions are ongoing, the overall number of passengers have gone up from 2,000-2,500 to 3,500-4,000 per day.

According to him, the revival of duty-free business is directly dependent on the revival of international travel.

For more, watch the accompanying video

(Edited by : Biv)