India's air traffic grows, IATA credits new 'supportive' government

The domestic passenger traffic of India is up by 7.4 per cent

Update: 2014-10-03 17:05 GMT
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New Delhi: Reflecting ‘solid’ growth over the past two months, India's domestic passenger traffic rose 7.4 per cent in August, recording the second highest growth rate globally after Russia's 10 per cent, latest IATA data shows. "Indian domestic demand climbed 7.4 per cent. Results for   the last two months have been solid, perhaps an early sign of   improvement as a result of the new business-supportive government regime," the analysis of the data by the   International Air Transport Association (IATA) said.  

India's domestic Revenue Passenger Kilometers (RPK), which measures actual passenger traffic, grew 7.4 per cent over August last year, almost matching the 7.6 per cent rise   in Available Seat Kilometres (ASK) that indicates available   passenger capacity or the number of aircraft seats available. The overall average domestic demand rose 4.5 per cent in August compared to August 2013 with all markets reporting   growth, led by Russia and India, the analysis said.   Like India, Russia's high growth rate of 10.1 per cent   showed that the airlines there "have been able to stimulate domestic demand through significant fare reductions", it said.  

The international air traffic results showed a "slight   pick-up in demand" in August over the previous month. Airlines in the Asia Pacific region saw their global   traffic rise 5.8 per cent in August compared to the previous year.

While seat capacity rose by seven per cent, their load factor declined 0.9 percentage points to 81 per cent.Middle East region saw the strongest year-on-year traffic   growth at 11.7 per cent as airlines there continued to  ‘benefit from the strength of regional economies and solid growth in business-related premium travel’.  Commenting on the air traffic data, IATA Director General   and CEO Tony Tyler said, "August was a good month right across the industry. All regions reported an expansion in demand for   air travel" with high load factors. 

"We should, however, keep an eye on potential downside risks," he said pointing towards European continent's 'increasingly worrying economic outlook'.    

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