The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) in its latest data has indicated that domestic air passenger traffic continued to grow in March 2019, but almost flat at 0.14 percent, mainly due to the huge capacity reduction following Jet Airways' troubles in the month. It noted that the cumulative traffic of 11 domestic carriers stood at 11.59 million in March 2019 as compared to 11.58 million passengers in the same period of last fiscal.
According to the data, the flat growth in traffic is a big setback to the industry which had been clipping at over 20 percent for more than four years in a row. It also stated that after a record run-rate in high double digits, traffic has been on a lower altitude in January when it grew 9.1 percent, first single digit growth in four years, and lost the momentum further in February when the incremental growth was capped at a low 5.62 percent.
DGCA has said that the disappointing March numbers can most be attributed to the troubles that Jet had been facing and the resultant spike in ticket prices across other airlines. However, it highlighted that domestic air passenger volume grew 14.27 percent to 126.77 million in fiscal 2019 over the previous year, even as March posted the lowest growth rate in many years. It added that in FY18, the passenger volume had clipped at a higher 18.3 percent to 108.68 million.
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