India’s domestic air passenger traffic grows due to network expansion: IATA

New Delhi, July 5 (IANS) Strong growth in network expansion led to double-digit growth in India’s domestic air passenger traffic for the 45th consecutive month in May, even as the rise in demand came down in the last few months, a global airline association said on Thursday.

According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), India’s domestic air passenger volume measured in revenue passenger kilometres (RPK) was the highest among major aviation markets like Australia, Brazil, China, Japan, Russia and the US.

As per data, India’s domestic RPK in the month under review rose by 16.6 per cent in May compared to the corresponding month of the previous year.

However, on a sequential basis the growth had come down from April’s rise of 25.7 per cent.

“India’s domestic traffic rose 16.6 per cent year-over-year, which was down from 25.7 per cent in April. Passenger volumes in India have fallen back in seasonally-adjusted terms in recent months alongside some mixed signals on the economic front,” IATA said in its global passenger traffic results for May 2018.

“Notwithstanding this, May was India’s 45th consecutive month of double-digit annual RPK growth. Demand continues to be supported by strong growth in the number of airport connections within the country: some 22 per cent more airport-pairs are scheduled to operate in 2018 compared to last year.”

India’s domestic passenger traffic growth was followed by that of China at 11.9 per cent and Russian Federation at 8.6 per cent.

In terms of capacity, India’s domestic available seat kilometres (ASK) — which measures available passenger capacity — climbed higher by 18 per cent in May, followed by that of China’s 12.5 per cent growth and Russian Federation at 7.5 per cent