During July 2016, the air passenger traffic in the country increased to 21.7 million, exhibiting a substantial growth of 23% over July 2015. This marked the 24th consecutive month of double digit growth for passenger traffic in the country. In 4m FY2017, the passenger traffic has reported a y-o-y growth of 19%, aircraft traffic has grown by 15% and cargo traffic has grown by 7%.
Mr. Harsh Jagnani, Vice President, ICRA Limited elaborates: “The passenger growth in July has been driven by significant y-o-y increase in both domestic and international traffic. Domestic passenger traffic has reported a 26% y-o-y increase in July 2016 as against 20% growth in June 2016. International passenger traffic, which had reported sub 10% growth rates over the last twelve months, has risen by 13% y-o-y in July 2016 as against 6% growth in June 2016. This growth can be primarily attributed to discounted airfares offered by major airlines on both domestic and international routes in order to spur demand in the traditionally lean season of July.” The passenger growth has remained broad-based with 19 out of the top 20 airports exhibiting double-digit y-o-y growth rates. The growth remained robust across both metro cities (y-o-y growth of 23%) and non-metro cities (y-o-y growth of 24%). In line with increase in passenger traffic, the aircraft traffic in the country also witnessed a healthy increase with domestic traffic growing by 16% and international traffic increasing by 8% y-o-y in July 2016.
The air cargo traffic in the country increased to 246,834 MT in July 2016 from 229,821 MT in July 2015, recording a y-o-y growth of 7%, slightly lower than the 9% growth in June 2016. Mr. Jagnani explains: “Air cargo volumes are closely aligned to the macroeconomic conditions and experience significant growth volatility depending upon variations in domestic and international economic environment. Given the uptick in economic activities in the country in recent months, the y-o-y growth in cargo has remained positive, although there have been significant variations in actual growth rates from month to month.” International cargo traffic, which constitutes over 60% of overall cargo traffic, reported higher y-o-y growth of 8% as against 6% for domestic cargo.
