Domestic air traffic growth slows to 12.4% in July

Low capacity addition, grounding of IndiGo planes, and seasonality cited as reasons

Domestic air traffic rose 12.4 per cent in July- the slowest in 2017- on the back of slower capacity addition and grounding of eight planes by IndiGo, the largest domestic airline.

Carriers flew 9.5 million passengers last month as against 8.5 million passengers in the same month last year.

IndiGo leads the domestic market with 38.7 market share but its share declined by 1.3 percentage points over June due to limited capacity addition and flight cancellations last month.

On an average IndiGo has been inducting 2-3 planes each month but last month it added only one A320 aircraft. Also, the carrier has been forced