India's domestic air traffic registered a fall of over 9.1% in February compared to the same month last year, as on average over a quarter of seats remained unoccupied on flights during this period. As per the global airlines’ body International Air Transport Association (IATA), the overall passenger load factor declined to 74.5%, meaning that on an average only so much of seats in an airplane in India were filled up.
This fall in domestic air traffic occurred even when the global passenger demand surged 3.7% compared to February last year. Apart from slowing economy, Indian carriers have been reducing capacity from the previously unsustainable levels, which declined 7.5% in February.
However, this decline seemed to be an exception, especially since the global traffic results showed that the demand growth was accelerating due to stronger business confidence, mainly in emerging regions. Global passenger demand has been growing since October last year at an annualized rate of 9%, almost double the growth trend over the first nine months of 2012.
On the international front, Asia-Pacific carriers recorded an increase of 4.5% during the same period mainly on the back of continuing improvements in China’s economy and growth in intra-Asian trade. Further, as per the IATA, with this robust performance, demand associated with Asia-Pacific’s emerging markets has been a major driver of the stronger growth in international traffic seen recently.
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