India's domestic passenger traffic up over 20% in October: IATA

India's domestic passenger traffic grew by 20.4 per cent in October, a global airline association said on Monday.

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.

The IATA data showed that India's domestic RPK -- which measures actual passenger traffic -- rose by over 20 per cent in October compared to the corresponding month of the previous year.

India's domestic passenger traffic growth was followed by that of China at 10 per cent and Brazil at 7.7 per cent.

In terms of capacity, India's domestic available seat kilometres (ASK) -- which measures available passenger capacity -- climbed higher by 15.5 per cent in October, followed by China's (11 per cent) and the US's (5.4 per cent).

The international passenger demand for September edged higher by 7.2 per cent compared with the year-ago period.

In addition, the September capacity grew by 6.2 per cent and load factor was up 0.8 per cent at 80.8 per cent.

"As expected, the recent severe weather in the Americas region had only a temporary impact on the healthy travel demand we have seen this year, and we remain on course for another year of above-trend growth," said IATA Director General and Chief Executive Officer Alexandre de Juniac.

--IANS

rv-ppg/nir/vm