ETW STAFF – Mumbai
According to date compiled by IATA, global passenger traffic results for September 2013 show a continuation of the strong demand trend despite a slight slowdown from August. Total revenue passenger kilometers (RPKs) rose 5.5 per cent compared to September 2012. Capacity increased at a slightly lower pace at 5.3 per cent over the same period. The load factor in September (80.3 per cent) was largely in line with levels achieved in September 2012.
“We are seeing a more positive environment for air travel demand, based on rising business confidence, a strong increase in export orders in September, and better performance of key emerging markets like China. The strong growth of recent months, coupled with the continuing improvements in air travel demand in September, suggests that there could be a further acceleration in air travel growth before the end of the year,” said Tony Tyler, director general and CEO, IATA.
September international passenger demand was up 5.7 per cent compared to the same period in 2012. An equivalent increase in capacity led to load factor remaining unchanged at 80.9 per cent when compared to September 2012. All regions saw demand increase compared to a year ago.
Indian domestic traffic grew 16.4% in September following the strong August growth (18.5 per cent). Capacity rose 5.7 per cent, pushing up load factor 6.6 percentage points to 71.5 per cent. The improvement over recent months is inconsistent with continued weakness in the economy and could be reflecting fare discounting. The year-to-date growth (4.0 per cent) is a significant improvement on 2012, when the market contracted 2.1 per cent.
