India s domestic passenger traffic growth slows in March: IATA

New Delhi May 4 (IANS) India s domestic passenger traffic growth slowed in March to 14.6 per cent from 17 per cent reported in February a global airline association said on Thursday.

According to the data furnished by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) the acceleration in India s passenger traffic growth was the slowest since September 2015.

This is the first possible sign of reduced cash supply and wider economic uncertainty weighing on demand IATA said in its passenger traffic analysis for March 2017.

That said some context is needed: March was the 31st consecutive month in with domestic passenger volumes grew at a double-digit annual pace. Moreover airlines are now scheduling a nine per cent increase in domestic routes in 2017.

Subsequently India s domestic revenue passenger kilometres (RPK) growth rate came down to the third position among major aviation markets like Australia Brazil China Japan Russia and the US.

India had topped the domestic charts for the highest growth rates for 23 months in a row.

The IATA data showed that India s domestic RPK -- which measures actual passenger traffic -- rose by 14.6 per cent in March compared to the corresponding month of the previous year.

--IANS
rv/bg