No demonetisation impact: Indians top flyers globally with 22% growth in November

Despite the demonetisation move that was said to have affected some sectors of the India, Indians were the top flyers in the month of November 2016 with the domestic air passenger traffic growing a huge 22.3 percent during the month.

New Delhi: Despite the demonetisation move that was said to have affected some sectors of the country, Indians were the top flyers in the month of November 2016 with the domestic air passenger traffic growing a huge 22.3 percent during the month.

According to IATA data, India's domestic air passenger traffic grew by 22.3 percent in November 2016, topping the growth chart worldwide for the 20th straight month.

IATA also on Wednesday said India continued to witness over 20 percent growth in domestic air passenger traffic for the 13th consecutive month in November 2016.

The month of November also showed the strongest demand in nine months for global passenger traffic too, the airlines group said.

Globally, total revenue passenger kilometres (RPKs) increased 7.6 percent compared to November 2015 while capacity -- available seat kilometres or ASKs -- went up by 6.5 percent.

ASK for India stood at 20.2 percent in November 2016.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) said domestic India topped the growth chart for the 20th consecutive month.

Apart from India, only two other countries -- Russia (15.5 percent) and China (14.9 percent) clocked double digit growth in November last year, as per IATA data.

"While there was little sign in the latest passenger data of any immediate negative impact following the demonetisation of bank notes enacted on November 8, the seasonally-adjusted traffic trend has paused in recent months.

"Nonetheless, the annual growth rate remained above 20 percent for the 13th month in a row," it said.

As part of larger efforts to curb black money menace and corruption, the government had cancelled Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes as legal tenders in November.

Coming out with the air traffic numbers for November 2016, IATA also said robust growth in India and China is being supported in both cases on multiple fronts, including sizeable increases in real consumer spending and growing options for passengers.

"Both Indian and Chinese airlines have increased the number of airport-pairs served in 2016 (although average flight frequencies in China have fallen compared to last year).

"Adding airport-pairs and flight frequencies reduces journey times for passengers and stimulates demand in a similar way to a cut in fares," it added.

IATA Director General and CEO Alexandre de Juniac said stronger demand for air travel reflects and is supporting a pick-up in the global economic cycle.

As the stimulus effect of lower oil prices recedes in the rear view mirror, the strength of the economic cycle would play a key role in the pace of demand growth in 2017, he added.

Out of the worldwide aviation market share, international segment accounts for 63.5 percent while 36.5 percent is made up by the domestic sector.

IATA represents nearly 265 airlines comprising 83 percent of global air traffic.

With PTI Inputs