Increase in India’s domestic air passenger demand

air_asiaTravel industry body International Air Transport Association (IATA) said India’s domestic market increased by 7.4 percent in August over the previous year.

“Results for the last two months have been solid, perhaps an early sign of improvement as a result of the new business-supportive government regime,” IATA said in a statement.

According to IATA, India’s domestic demand rose 4.5 percent in the month under review compared to August 2013.

“August was a good month right across the industry. All regions reported an expansion in demand for air travel. We should, however, keep an eye on potential downside risks,” said Tony Tyler, director general and chief executive, IATA.

Data furnished by the civil aviation ministry, showed that domestic air passenger traffic increased by 8.31 percent in August to 56.97 lakh passengers – up from 52.60 lakh ferried in the corresponding month last year.

On a month-on-month basis there was an increase of over five percent in the passenger traffic.

“Passengers carried by domestic airlines during Jan-Aug 2014 were 433.25 lakh as against 411.40 lakh during the corresponding period of previous year, thereby registering a growth of 5.31 percent,” the ministry had said in a statement.

The data showed that low-cost carrier IndiGo achieved the highest market share at 32.6 percent followed by SpiceJet at 19.5 percent, Air India at 16.2 percent, Jet Airways at 16.1 percent, Go Air at 10 percent, and JetLite at 4 percent.

Regional carriers AirAsia India reported a market share of 0.06 percent and Air Costa at 1.1 percent.