Air passenger traffic grew by 14 percent in February: ICRA

In the month of February 2017, the air passenger traffic in the country stood at 21.9 million, thereby accounting for a year-on-year growth of 14 percent.

"This increase in growth is primarily on account of moderation in domestic traffic, which constitutes 78 percent of the passenger traffic in the country and has reported a 16 percent y-o-y growth in February 2017 as against 26 percent growth in January 2017. The international passenger traffic growth also witnessed a marginal dip, falling to 7 percent y-o-y in February 2017 from 8 percent in January 2017. The y-o-y aircraft traffic growth remained healthy at 10 percent in February 2017, although in line with passenger traffic, it also reported slight moderation as compared to January 2017", said Harsh Jagnani, Vice President and Sector Head for corporate ratings, ICRA.

 

The passenger traffic has reported a growth of 19 percent, aircraft traffic has grown by 14 percent and cargo traffic has grown by 9 percent.

The air cargo traffic in the country increased to 239,700 MT in February 2017, reporting a y-o-y growth of 9 percent, lower than the 14 percent growth in January 2017.

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

International cargo traffic, which constitutes over 62 percent of overall cargo traffic, reported slightly higher y-o-y growth of 11 percent as against 7 percent growth for domestic cargo.