Domestic air traffic up 4.43% in 2013

Over 60 million passengers took to skies in 2013, compared with 58 million a year ago

Domestic airlines flew over 60 million passengers in 2013 which is a growth of 4.43 passengers over 2012. In 2012 airlines flew 58 million passengers, according to Directorate General of Civil Aviation data. Air traffic dropped  by over 2 percent in 2012 over 2011 due to rise in fares and user fees at various airports. Capacity growth  too had fallen  to 0.3 per cent in 2012  (from 16.2 per cent in 2011).

"Air traffic growth in 2013 has been sluggish. If we take two year period then it is actually flat. We hope that there is a high single digit growth or a double digit growth in 2014 with the launch of two new airlines,'' said Sharat Dhall, president of Yatra.com

Traffic grew 3.37 percent in December 2013 last month over same month in 2012  boosted by strong demand for leisure travel during the Christmas week. Over 5.5 million passengers travelled in domestic airlines in December 2013 in comparison to 5.4 million in December 2012. JetLite reported the highest loads (78.5) followed by GoAir, IndiGo and Air India.

DGCA did not release market share data for December.