India’s domestic passenger traffic up 21% in May: IATA

New Delhi, July 8 (IANS) A global airlines' association on Friday reported that India's domestic passenger traffic grew by 21 per cent in May.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) pointed out that for May, India's domestic revenue passenger kilometres (RPK) and available seat kilometres (ASK) were the highest amongst the major aviation markets such as Australia, Brazil, China, Japan, the Russian Federation and the US.

According to the global airlines association's May traffic results, India's domestic RPK -- a gauge that measures actual passenger traffic -- rose by 21 per cent in May compared to the corresponding month of the previous year.

Data furnished by the IATA disclosed that India's domestic passenger traffic growth was followed by that of China at 9.8 per cent, the US at 4.4 per cent and Australia at 0.8 per cent.

However, Brazil reported a decline in their domestic passenger traffic at 7.7 per cent, followed by Japan at 4.2 per cent and the Russian Federation at 3.5 per cent.

Similarly, India's domestic ASK -- which measures available passenger capacity -- surged by 21.9 per cent in the month under review, followed by that of China at 9.8 per cent and the US at 4.3 per cent.

Earlier in the week, the global airlines association said in its "World Air Transport Statistics" that India had achieved the fastest domestic passenger growth in 2015, with an annual growth of 18.8 per cent in a market of 80 million domestic passengers.

For the month under review, the association added that the global RPK in May had risen by 4.6 per cent, while the ASK climbed by 5.5 per cent.

Further, the data for May revealed that the demand for global domestic traffic rose by 5.1 per cent, against the international demand growth of 4.3 per cent.

“After a very strong start to the year, demand growth is slipping back toward more historic levels. A combination of factors are likely behind this more moderated pace of demand growth," said Tony Tyler, Director General and Chief Executive, IATA.

"These include continuing terrorist activity and the fragile state of the global economy. 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.”