India fastest growing domestic air travel market, 22 months in a row

New Delhi: India has been the world's fastest growing domestic air market for 22 months in a row, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) said on Tuesday. This means in last 22 months, India has seen the highest growth in domestic air travel over the same month in previous year.

"India led domestic all markets in year-to-year growth for the 22nd month in a row. January traffic soared 26.6%, marking the 15th consecutive month of 20%-plus annual growth. Demand is being stimulated by strong flight frequency. (Globally) Domestic air travel climbed 9.9% in January year-on-year. All markets except Brazil showed growth, paced by double-digit increases in China, India and Russia," IATA said. China's domestic traffic growth was not far behind, up 23.2% compared to January 2016.

The India growth story of IATA is backed by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). According to the DGCA data, Indians had flown like never before within the country in 2016 with almost 10 crore (9.9 crore to be precise) taking to the skies, up 23.2% from previous year's 8.1 crore.

The growth happened as low oil prices enabled airlines to offer cheap fares and lead to explosive growth of domestic aviation in India. Indian airports, at least the busy ones in big cities, are again witnessing the infrastructure crunch witnessed in mid-2000 when low cost carriers started flying and their cheap fares saw people taking to the skies.

Today peak hour hovering at airports like Mumbai and Delhi is back with a vengeance with incoming planes holding for anywhere up to half an hour before getting a chance to land.

The Mumbai airport is already choked and has no slots. "Unless the government acts fast on infra addition and multiple airports in metros, we will see a Mumbai-like crunch at more and more cities in coming years. Today Indian airlines have ordered hundreds of planes but no one even knows where they will be parked," said an airline official.

Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research and IBEF is not responsible for any errors in the same.