Work, reconnecting with family will be two key reasons to travel in future: Survey

Work and reconnecting with family will be the two key reasons to travel in the future, budget airline IndiGo claimed in a survey conducted in December with 23,000 travellers.

"Visiting friends or relatives (46 per cent) and business (29 per cent) will be the key reasons to travel, followed by leisure (9 per cent) and work vacation (7 per cent)," stated the survey released on Tuesday.

It said 69 per cent of the passengers said they planned to travel again in the next three months. In its June survey, this figure stood at 54 per cent.

Forty-seven per cent of the respondents want to travel solo in the future, followed by 43 per cent with family, the survey said.

Air transport is considered the safest mode by a wide margin for inter-city travel, it observed. Fifty-five per cent of respondents said they felt air travel safe. Thirty-seven per cent of them found driving was safe, and eight per cent picked train travel.

William Boulter, Chief Commercial Officer, IndiGo said, "There has been a 16-point rise in passenger confidence in IndiGo from 65% in June to 81% in December 2020."

"We are pleased to see that we have gained customer confidence over the last six months on the back of our safety measures and customer initiatives," he added.

Indian carriers are permitted to operate not more than 80 per cent of their pre-COVID flights.

India resumed scheduled domestic passenger flights on May 25, after a gap of two months. However, at that time, carriers were allowed to operate maximum 33 per cent of their pre-Covid-19 flights. This figure has been gradually increased and stands at 80 per cent currently.

Scheduled international passenger flights continue to remain suspended in the country since March 23 due to the pandemic.

However, airlines have been permitted to operate special international flights under the Vande Bharat Mission since May this year and under the bilateral air bubble pacts since July.