India's domestic air traffic grew over 26 pc in Sept

India's domestic air traffic grew at a record pace of over 26 per cent in September compared to the same month last year with low air fares stimulating the travel demand, IATA said today.
Indian traffic "spiked 26.3 per cent in September compared to a year ago", showed the latest data released by International Air Transport Association (IATA).
It attributed this growth, which was several times that of 7.6 per cent recorded in August, to market stimulation measures by the Indian carriers which continued to offer low fares on the domestic sectors.
"Whereas previous improvements in growth rates potentially were attributable to revived confidence over the new business- supportive government, the strong increase in September was owing to market stimulation measures introduced by carriers," IATA said as it released the September air traffic figures.

On international air travel, the IATA figures showed that Asia Pacific airlines reported a demand growth of 4.8 per cent compared to a year ago.
"Although this is a weaker rise than August, the recent trend has been positive and reflects better demand conditions in the region, including stronger trade activity that encourages business travel," it said.

The overall global passenger traffic results for September showed demand growth of 5.3 per cent over September last year.
"This continues the positive growth trend for passenger demand even though the performance was slightly below the August year-over-year rise of 6.3 per cent," the IATA study said.

However, IATA Director General and CEO Tony Tyler said though the fall in oil prices was "good news for an industry that spends a third of its operating budget on fuel", its full impact would "only be realized over time because of a time lag built into jet fuel pricing".