Economic growth behind rising passenger numbers: IATA

The International Air Traffic Association has credited increase in service frequencies and improvements in economic growth as reasons behind India’s domestic passenger demand soaring 28.1 per cent in July compared to a year ago.

Data shows that growth in India’s domestic passenger number was the highest globally in June followed by China that grew by 10.9% during the same period.
International passenger demand rose 8.6 per cent compared to the same month in 2014, with airlines in all regions recording growth, ‘including Africa for the first time this year’.

IATA also said that global passenger traffic results for July shows robust demand growth compared to July 2014 for both domestic and international traffic. Total revenue passenger kilometers (RPKs) rose 8.2 pct, which was an improvement on the June year-over-year increase of 5.5 pct. July capacity (available seat kilometers or ASKs) increased by 6.5 pct, and load factor rose 1.4 percentage points to 83.6%.

“Results were given a boost by the timing of Ramadan which fell partly in July this year but took place mostly in July in 2014. The holy month tends to subdue demand for air travel,” said the release.

IATA, however, predicts a little turbulence ahead. “July results were strongly positive but slowing global trade and the wild gyrations of stock exchanges around the globe suggest that we may be in for some turbulence in coming months,” Tony Tyler, IATA’s Director General and CEO was quoted in the release.