India s March domestic passenger traffic growth rises by 28%: IATA

New Delhi May 3 (IANS) India s domestic passenger traffic grew by 27.9 per cent in March a global airline association said on Thursday.

According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA) India s domestic demand -- revenue passenger kilometres (RPK) -- was highest amongst major aviation markets like Australia Brazil China Japan Russia and the United States.

As per the data India s domestic RPK -- which measures actual passenger traffic -- rose by over 27.9 per cent in March compared to the corresponding month of the previous year.

"The domestic India market posted double-digit annual growth for the 43rd consecutive month (27.9 per cent up from 22.9 per cent in February) with passenger demand continuing to be supported by a combination of strong economic and network growth " IATA said in its global passenger traffic results for March 2018.

"Once again India posted the highest load factor of all domestic markets (87.8 per cent) 6.7 percentage points higher than in March 2017."

India s domestic passenger traffic growth was followed by that of China at 15 per cent and Russian Federation at 5.9 per cent.

In terms of capacity India s domestic available seat kilometres (ASK) -- which measures available passenger capacity -- climbed higher by 18.1 per cent in March followed by China s 13.8 per cent growth.

--IANS
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