By IANS,
New Delhi : The International Air Transport Association (IATA) Friday said a slowing economy and high operating costs have affected the domestic passenger traffic in India which fell two percent year-on-year in August.
“Indian carriers, affected by the slowing economy and high-cost operating environment, saw domestic demand fall by two percent compared to the previous August,” IATA said in a statement.
“Capacity expanded by 0.7 percent and load factors slipped to 66.6 percent,” IATA said.
Official data had shown earlier that domestic air passenger traffic fell 3.70 percent for the fourth straight month in August, which stood at 43.69 lakh from 45.37 lakh travellers in July.
The trend started in May during which the traffic came down 0.87 percent and stood at 54.48 lakh from 54.96 lakh in the corresponding month of 2011. June recorded a substantial fall of 3.84 percent at 51.08 lakh from 53.12 lakh in the like month of 2011.
The data released by the civil aviation ministry, however, showed the total passengers carried by all the domestic airlines in the January-August period grew by a marginal 0.50 percent at 398.21 lakh passengers from 396.31 lakh during the corresponding month of 2011.
The number of passengers carried by the domestic airlines were 398.21 lakh between January-August 2012 as against 396.31 lakh during the corresponding period of the previous year showing the passenger traffic growth of plus 0.50 percent.