mumbai domestic air passenger traffic is expected to fall to fiscal 2016 levels with only about 7883 million flyers this fiscal according to projections released by crisil research on wednesday as for international passenger traffic delayed resumption of international operations is likely to translate into a steep drop in passenger numbers for fiscal 2021 with passenger volumes projected at 2530 million which was the level last seen in fiscal 2008curtailed mobility of people due to the covid19 pandemic and related restrictions will shrink indias air passenger traffic in both domestic and international sectors by 4045 and 6065 respectively this fiscal said crisil looking ahead if a covid cure comes along then in fy 2022 domestic passenger traffic would be at 122130 million near the fiscal 2018 level as people will take to air travel again but some share of business traffic is expected to be lost permanently owing to rising preference for videoconferencing and other digital means of communication it said in second scenario with no cure only essential travel is expected to continue domestic passenger traffic was projected at 98105 million which is somewhat near the fiscal 2017 level said the reportmore on covid19coronavirus pandemic complete coveragelockdown 30 whats allowed and whats not in the three zonesits time to mask up and stay safe join tois maskindia campaignmhas guidelines for home isolationtrust the newspaper for your daily verified newsthe demand destruction can be gauged from the fact that even after resumption of domestic air services the load factor is hovering at 5060 with primarily unidirectional flow of traffic limited largely to essential travel and those returning to their home cities countries said crisil this is a serious jolt to the indian domestic air travel industry that had logged doubledigit growth in seven of the past ten fiscals before its fortunes took a turn for the worse with the bankruptcy and grounding of a couple of major carrierswhile international operations are expected to resume in august which were grounded from march 23 there is uncertainty with regard to granting of air travel permissions by different countries and because of a visa application backlog it said for fiscal 2022 crisil again assessed passenger volume based on two scenarios international passenger traffic is expected to recover to 5458 million which is fiscal 2017 level if a cure for the virus is available if not then traffic was forecast to slip back to fiscal 2014 level of 4448 million with only essential travel and a section of business people opting to flylooking through a wider lens the share of indian carriers in international traffic is set to rise to 4042 in fiscals 2021 and 2022 from 36 over fiscals 2016 to 2020 as travellers are likely to prefer short to medium haul destinations owing to lower incidence of covid19 cases in neighbouring countries preference for direct flights over transit through hubs and lower trip costs which can all be served by indian carriers the report said