The Indian domestic air traffic market surged 15.7% in August 2013, when compared to the same month a year ago.
Global airlines body, International Air Transport Association (IATA) said that ‘there has been substantial volatility in growth rates in recent months but year-to-date growth of 2.8% confirms that demand has been weak overall, consistent with weakening economic conditions’.
According to IATA, capacity increased 8.5% over August 2012 and load factor climbed 4.5 percentage points to 71.9%.
“Strong demand and capacity discipline saw load factors match the previous record high of 83.4%. The solid performance was also supported by a stabilization of emerging market weakness and renewed confidence in Europe and North America,” Tony Tyler, IATA’s Director General and CEO of IATA said.
He added that trading conditions remained ‘tough’ with increasing prices of oil, competition as well as regulatory hurdles. Total revenue passenger kilometers (RPKs) rose 6.8% compared to August 2012. Capacity increases over the year-ago period lagged demand at 5.6%. This pushed the load factor to match the record high of 83.4% set in July 2011, the forum said.
The Asia-Pacific region based carriers saw an increase of 8.6%, they said. Tyler, highlighting the positive side, said that demand growth remained the ‘bright spot’ making the upcoming fourth quarter (CY13) a better bet for the industry.
