India's domestic traffic spiked in March: IATA

After a substantial fall in February, India's domestic air traffic in March spiked seven per cent compared to 2012, primarily due to lower fares, IATA said today.
Releasing latest data, global airlines' umbrella body International Air Transport Association (IATA) said that the domestic traffic rose seven per cent compared to a year ago, making it the "second strongest performance" of the Indian aviation market.
The likely cause of this sudden and sharp increase was "a reduction in fares by several airlines serving the Indian domestic market" which boosted demand, it said.
In February, the traffic had dropped 9.1 per cent compared to the same month in 2012.

The passenger load factor, an aircraft seats filled on a flight, also shot up 3.6 percentage points in March to 76 per cent from 74.5 in the previous month.
The growth path of international passenger traffic showed Asia-Pacific carriers' traffic rising 5.4 per cent in March compared to the same month last year.

"Strong growth in the Chinese market as well as an improvement in Asia trade since the 2012 fourth quarter have supported increased demand," the IATA analysis said.
But the maximum spike globally was experienced by Middle East carriers which had the strongest traffic growth of 15.6 per cent, followed by Latin American airlines, whose March demand went up 11.8 per cent.

"Strong demand for air travel is consistent with improving business conditions. ... Business confidence levels continue to foreshadow an economic upturn. It is important that governments avoid placing roadblocks to recovery," said IATA chief Tony Tyler.