New Delhi: IndiGo’s large-scale flight cancellations earlier this month led to a sharp fall in aviation turbine fuel (ATF) sales, which declined by over 4 per cent in the first half of December, according to preliminary industry data released on Tuesday.
Jet fuel demand, which had been steadily rising for the past two years as air travel recovered from the pandemic, took a hit after the country’s largest airline cancelled nearly 5,000 flights.
At the peak, over 1,600 of IndiGo’s roughly 2,300 daily services were grounded due to new pilot duty-time norms, crew shortages and winter disruptions such as dense fog at major airports. Operations stabilised over the weekend.
ATF sales during December 1–15 fell to 3.31 lakh tonnes from 3.45 lakh tonnes a year earlier, and were down 7.2 per cent from the previous month.
Jet fuel was the only major fuel to see a decline, while petrol, diesel and LPG posted strong growth. Diesel consumption rose nearly 5 per cent year-on-year to 3.3 million tonnes, petrol demand increased 7.7 per cent to 1.33 million tonnes, and LPG sales jumped 15.1 per cent to 1.55 million tonnes, driven by higher household demand and expanded coverage under the PMUY scheme.