India's domestic passenger traffic up 22% in April: IATA

A global airlines` association on Monday reported that India's domestic passenger traffic grew by 21.8% in April.

"India`s domestic traffic soared 21.8%, marking the 20th month of double-digit traffic growth and the 13th consecutive month it has led the domestic markets," said International Air Transport Association (IATA) in its global passenger traffic results for April.

"Growth in the India domestic market is being propelled by the comparatively strong economic backdrop as well as sizeable increases in services."

According to IATA`s April traffic results, India`s domestic passenger traffic grew the fastest amongst the seven major aviation markets of the world. The other major aviation markets are Australia, Brazil, China, Japan, the Russian Federation and the US.

Data furnished by IATA disclosed that India`s domestic passenger traffic growth was followed by that of China at 9.5%, the US and Australia at 2.4% each, the Russian Federation at 1.9% and Japan at 0.7%.

However, Brazil reported a decline in their domestic passenger traffic at -12.1%. 

The data further pointed out that India`s domestic capacity in the month under review rose by 21.3%. Earlier, data furnished by the Indian civil aviation ministry revealed that domestic air passenger traffic increased by 20.93% in April.

The air passenger traffic stood at 79.32 lakh passengers -- up from 65.59 lakh in the corresponding month last year.

The ministry data revealed that the low-cost carrier (LCC) IndiGo was the dominant airline during the period under review with a market share of 38.7%, followed by Jet Airways with 15.9%, Air India with 15.1%, and SpiceJet with 12.9%.