Demand for domestic air travel in India continues to surge, with the pace of growth accelerating in May 2017.
According to the latest monthly data from IATA, Indian passenger traffic surged 17.7% year-on-year during the month, which outpaced a 14.7% increase in seat capacity. This allowed the country’s average load factor to rise again, reaching a strong 88.6% in May.
This means that India is now the world’s fastest-growing major domestic aviation market, ahead of China which experienced a 16.8% jump in traffic in May.
Both of these Asian giants outpaced the global average air traffic growth rate of 7.7% during the month. International traffic to and from the Asia Pacific region, including India, increased 10.5% year-on-year, with an average load factor of 77.6%.
IATA noted that traffic on routes between Asia and Europe route has recovered strongly since last year’s terrorism incidents, which caused a sharp drop in demand. Since November 2016, Asia-Europe air traffic has surged at an annualised rate of more than 26%.
