Domestic air passenger traffic rises 14% in February 2017: ICRA

The air passenger traffic in the country rose by 14 per cent year-on-year (y-o-y) to 21.9 million in February, domestic rating agency ICRA said on Tuesday.

According to the ICRA report, during the 11 months of financial year 2016-17, y-o-y growth in the passenger traffic has been reported at 19 per cent, aircraft traffic by 14 per cent and cargo traffic at 9 per cent.

"The y-o-y air passenger growth has remained healthy at 14 per cent in February 2017, although there has been some moderation as compared to 22 per cent growth witnessed in January 2017," Harsh Jagnani, Vice President and Sector Head for Corporate Ratings, ICRA, said in a statement.

"This is primarily on account of moderation in domestic traffic, which constitutes 78 per cent of the passenger traffic in the country and has reported a 16 per cent y-o-y growth in February 2017 as against 26 per cent growth in January 2017."

Jagnani said that the international passenger traffic growth also witnessed a marginal dip, falling to seven per cent y-o-y in February 2017 from eight per cent in January 2017.

"The y-o-y aircraft traffic growth remained healthy at 10 per cent in February 2017, although in line with passenger traffic, it also reported slight moderation as compared to January 2017," Jagnani said.

The report pointed out that growth has remained broad-based with 18 out of the top 20 airports exhibiting y-o-y increase in passenger traffic in February 2017.

On the domestic air cargo segment, the report showed that the traffic increased to 239,700 MT (million tonnes) in February 2017, reporting a y-o-y growth of nine per cent, lower than the 14 per cent growth in January 2017.

"Air cargo volumes are closely aligned to the macroeconomic conditions and experience significant growth volatility depending upon variations in domestic and international economic environment. Consequently, there have been significant variations in cargo growth rates from month to month, however, the overall trend in y-o-y growth has remained positive over the last year," Jagnani said.

"The growth has remained broad-based, with 15 out of the top 20 airports reporting positive y-o-y growth in February 2017."

Besides, international cargo traffic, which constitutes over 62 per cent of overall cargo traffic - reported slightly higher y-o-y growth of 11 per cent as against seven per cent growth for domestic cargo.

"On m-o-m (month-on-month) basis, both domestic and international cargo witnessed a decline of two per cent in February 2017," the report added.