India's domestic passenger traffic rises over 20% in June

India's domestic passenger traffic grew by 20.3 per cent in June, a global airline association said on Thursday.

"India led all markets with a 20.3 per cent rise in domestic traffic in June," the International Air Transport Association (IATA) said in its global passenger traffic data.

"However, the very strong upward trend in traffic has slowed since the country's unexpected 'demonetisation' in November 2016. India's streak of year-on-year double-digit traffic growth may have ended with June."

India's domestic demand -- revenue passenger kilometres (RPK) -- was highest amongst major aviation markets like Australia, Brazil, China, Japan, Russia and the US.

The IATA data showed that India's domestic RPK -- which measures actual passenger traffic -- rose by 20.3 per cent in June compared to the corresponding month of the previous year.

India's domestic passenger traffic growth was followed by that of China at 17.6 per cent, Russian Federation at 9.7 per cent and Japan at 7.9 per cent.

In terms of capacity, India's domestic ASK -- which measures available passenger capacity -- edged higher by 13.3 per cent in June. It was preceded only by China's ASK growth of 15.3 per cent.

"June capacity increased 7 per cent, and load factor rose 0.9 percentage points to 84.3 per cent. Led by China and India, all markets reported demand increases, but with wide variation," IATA said in its global passenger traffic data for June.

The international passenger demand for June was up 7.8 per cent compared to the year-ago period, and was a bit higher when compared to the 7.7 per cent yearly increase recorded in May.

In addition, the June capacity increased by 6.5 per cent, and load factor rose 1 percentage point to 81.9 per cent.

"A brighter economic picture and lower airfares are keeping demand for travel strong. But as costs rise, this stimulus of lower fares is likely to fade. And uncertainties such as Brexit need to be watched carefully. Nonetheless, we still expect 2017 to see above-trend growth," said IATA's Director General and CEO Alexandre de Juniac.

--IANS

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