India's domestic passenger traffic rises over 22.9% in February: IATA

India's domestic passenger traffic grew by 22.9 per cent in February, a global airline association said on Thursday.

According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), India's domestic demand -- revenue passenger kilometres (RPK) -- was highest amongst major aviation markets like Australia, Brazil, China, Japan, Russia and the United States.

As per the data India's domestic RPK -- which measures actual passenger traffic -- rose by over 22.9 per cent in February compared to the corresponding month of the previous year.

"Domestic travel demand rose 8.2 per cent in February compared to February 2017, up from 4.9 per cent year-over-year growth in January, with all markets reporting increases, led by India and China," IATA said in its global passenger traffic results for February 2018.

India's domestic passenger traffic growth was followed by that of China at 11.8 per cent and Russian Federation at 6.6 per cent.

"India's domestic traffic rose 22.9 per cent, the 42nd consecutive month of double-digit year-on-year demand growth, and load factor exceeded 90 per cent for the first time on record," the report said.

"Passenger demand continues to be stimulated by network growth that translates into time savings for air travellers."

In terms of capacity, India's domestic available seat kilometres (ASK) -- which measures available passenger capacity -- climbed higher by 17.7 per cent in February, followed by that of China's 13.1 per cent growth.

--IANS

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