India's air traffic up 27% in March

Domestic air traffic in India grew 27.4 per cent in March, about six times higher than in the US, the second fastest growing market, according to the International Air Transport Association (IATA).

Globally, domestic travel demand and capacity grew 3.7 per cent and 4.3 per cent, respectively, in March on a year-on-year basis. India outperformed all other markets because of a combination of increased capacity and low fares.

Capacity addition in India at 21.7 per cent was also the highest and seat occupancy of 83.1 per cent was second only to the US.

Growth in the India domestic market is being propelled by the comparatively strong economic backdrop, as well as sizable increases in services (average flight frequencies within India are scheduled to increase by 11.5 per cent year-on-year in 2016), IATA said.