Air passenger traffic jumps 14% in February

Passengers carried by domestic airlines in India reached 219 lakh in February which was 161.31 lakh during the same period last year.

This exhibited a 14% y-o-y growth, analysts from ICRA said in a report.
 
“During 11 month FY2017, the passenger traffic has reported a y-o-y growth of 19%, aircraft traffic has grown by 14% and cargo traffic has grown by 9%,” ICRA report said.  

The air passenger traffic was 95.79 lakh in January 2017.

“The y-o-y air passenger growth has remained healthy at 14% in February 2017, although there has been some moderation as compared to 22% growth witnessed in January 2017. This is primarily on account of moderation in domestic traffic, which constitutes 78% of the passenger traffic in the country and has reported a 16% y-o-y growth in February 2017 as against 26% growth in January 2017,” Harsh Jagnani, Vice President and Sector Head for corporate ratings, ICRA Limited said. 

India that flew 10 crore people during the year 2016 was named as the third largest aviation market in terms of domestic passenger traffic by think-tank Capa Centre of Aviation.

“The international passenger traffic growth also witnessed a marginal dip, falling to 7% y-o-y in February 2017 from 8% in January 2017. The y-o-y aircraft traffic growth remained healthy at 10% in February 2017, although in line with passenger traffic, it also reported slight moderation as compared to January 2017,” Jagnani added.

The report further added that growth has remained broad-based with 18 out of the top 20 airports exhibiting y-o-y increase in passenger traffic in February 2017. 
 
The air cargo traffic in the country increased to 239,700 MT in February 2017, reporting a y-o-y growth of 9%, lower than the 14% growth in January 2017.

Jagnani said, “Air cargo volumes are closely aligned to the macroeconomic conditions and experience significant growth volatility depending upon variations in domestic and international economic environment. Consequently, there have been significant variations in cargo growth rates from month to month, however, the overall trend in y-o-y growth has remained positive over the last year. The growth has remained broad-based, with 15 out of the top 20 airports reporting positive y-o-y growth in February 2017.”

While international cargo traffic, which constituted over 62% of overall cargo traffic, ICRA analysts said reported slightly higher y-o-y growth of 11% as against 7% growth for domestic cargo.  

“On m-o-m basis, both domestic and international cargo witnessed a decline of 2% in February 2017,” the report added.