Surge in air passengers; India's domestic air traffic up 21%

New Delhi: Keeping its position at the top in the domestic travel demand for the 14th consecutive month, India`s air passenger traffic announced a surge of 21 percent in May over the corresponding period last year.

It stated a rise of 5.1 percent in demand for domestic traffic, outpacing international demand growth of 4.3 percent in May 2016.

As per the data released by the International Air Traffic Association (IATA), India`s domestic air traffic grew 21 percent, whereas the overall traffic growth (domestic and international), however, rose 4.6 percent in May this year over May 2015 with the demand getting impacted due to recent terrorist strikes and UK`s decision to opt out of the European Union.

"After a very strong start to the year, demand growth is slipping back toward more historic levels. A combination of factors is likely behind this more moderated pace of demand growth. These include continuing terrorist activity and the fragile state of the global economy," said IATA Director General and Chief Executive Officer Tony Tyler.

"Neither bode well for travel demand. And the shocks of Istanbul and the economic fallout of the Brexit vote make it difficult to see an early uptick," he added."India`s domestic traffic soared 21.8 percent, marking the 20th month of double-digit traffic growth and the 13th consecutive month it has led the domestic markets," said Tyler.

For Asia-Pacific carriers, the large markets in India, China and Japan mean that domestic travel accounts for 45 percent of the region`s operations, IATA reported.

Significantly, India accounts for only 1.2 percent of the total domestic air traffic."The shockwaves of the Brexit vote have extended worldwide and the fallout will affect the air transport industry, from both economic and regulatory perspectives,"" added Tyler.