During September 2016, the air passenger traffic in the country stood at 20.9 million, exhibiting a robust growth of 21% over September 2015. During H1 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 8%.
Mr. Harsh Jagnani, Vice President, ICRA Limited elaborates: “September marked the third consecutive month of around 20% y-o-y growth in air passenger traffic in the country, translating into a robust y-o-y growth of over 21% for Q2 FY2016. This augurs well for the industry given that July-September is traditionally considered to be a lean period. The growth in September was driven by healthy y-o-y increase in both domestic and international passenger traffic. The domestic passenger traffic continued on its strong growth trajectory, reporting a substantial y-o-y increase of 24% in September 2016, up from 23% in August 2016, while the international passenger traffic reported a growth of 12% as against 8% in August 2016.” Moreover, 19 out of the top 20 airports have reported double digit y-o-y passenger growth rates in September, which underlines the broad-based nature of growth. In line with increase in passenger traffic, the aircraft traffic in the country also witnessed a healthy increase with domestic traffic growing by 15% and international traffic increasing by 8% y-o-y in September 2016.
In another positive, the air cargo traffic too reported a healthy y-o-y growth of 10% in September 2016 as against 8% in August 2016. Mr. Jagnani explains: “Cargo volumes have continued to maintain a positive growth trend over the last twelve months. Both domestic and international cargo volumes reported an improvement in growth in September 2016. Moreover, the growth remained well-spread with 18 out of the top 20 airports reporting positive y-o-y growth in September 2016.” International cargo traffic, which constitutes over 60% of overall cargo traffic, reported slightly lower y-o-y growth of 9% as against 12% growth for domestic cargo.
