India’s domestic air traffic declined almost 5 per cent in January this year even though the overall global market showed an upswing, with China becoming the second largest domestic market worldwide, International Air Transport Association (IATA) said on Tuesday.
In its analysis, IATA said, “India’s domestic market was also in negative territory with 4.9 per cent decline in demand and 5.3 per cent capacity reduction.”
Without naming Kingfisher Airlines, it said the decline was caused by “one of the major domestic players” effectively exiting the market, apart from weak economic growth, rising infrastructure costs and impact of high fuel prices “exaggerated by excessive taxation.”
The analysis showed that domestic air travel expanded 1.1 per cent, slightly behind a capacity expansion of 1.4, while the passenger load factor averaged 76.4 per cent.
However, “after seasonal adjustment, the load factor reached a record high, exceeding 80 per cent.
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