July air passenger traffic up by 28.1 per cent; India at peak among major international markets
New Delhi: Air passenger traffic in India surged by a whopping 28.1 per cent in July, the highest among seven major international markets including China, Russia, Brazil and the US, owing to addition of new services and improvement in domestic economy, an IATA report said.
The overall domestic travel demand worldwide rose by 7.6 per cent in July this year as against 6.5 per cent in July 2014, with all markets showing growth and the strongest increases occurring in India and China, International Air Transport Association (IATA) said.
China clocked the second highest growth at 10.9 per cent after India followed by the Russian Federation, which posted an 8.8 per cent growth during the period, it said. The US and Brazil markets grew by 6.6 per cent and 5.9 per cent in July 2015, IATA said.
"India's domestic demand soared 28.1 per cent in July compared to a year ago, likely owing to significant increases in service frequencies and improvements in economic growth. "China domestic traffic climbed 10.9 per cent year-on-year. Recent developments in the Chinese economy, including deep declines in the country's stock exchange, have increased concerns about a further slowdown in the economy," IATA said.
"July results were strongly positive but slowing global trade and the wild gyrations of stock exchanges around the globe suggest that we may be in for some turbulence in coming months," IATA Director General and Chief Executive Tony Tyler said. According to the global airlines body, results were given a boost by the timing of Ramzan, which fell partly in July this year but took place mostly in July in 2014. The holy month of Muslims tends to subdue demand for air travel.
Domestic capacity across the eight global markets climbed 6.5 per cent while the seat factor grew by 0.8 percentage points to 83.6 per cent during this period, IATA said. The international passenger demand during June 2015 stood at 8.6 per cent over the year-ago period, with airlines in all six regions -- Asia pacific, Europe, North America, Latin America, Middle-east and Africa -- recording growth, including Africa for the first time this year, it said.
"Following a strong summer the outlook heading into autumn is unsettled to say the least. While passenger demand remains healthy, air cargo growth turned negative in July. The downward movement in stock markets around the globe reflects investors' growing concerns about slowing trade and economic growth in emerging economies, as well as China's continued shift towards domestic markets," Tyler said.
Aviation's connectivity creates economic opportunities and contributes to job creation, he said, adding governments looking to shore up consumer confidence and encourage spending should be encouraging greater connectivity by removing barriers to growth such as heavy taxes and charges and infrastructure constraints.
