India tops domestic air traffic growth in June: IATA

Marking the highest growth for any country, India registered a growth of 20.3 per cent in domestic air traffic in June, according to global airlines' body IATA.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) said India tops the growth chart in the first half of this year. As per the data, India's domestic air traffic growth rose 20.3 per cent in June, the highest among major markets. The demand is measured in terms of total revenue passenger kilometres or RPKs.

"Domestic India RPKs grew by 18.6 per cent in year-on- year terms in H1 2017, with annual RPK posting its 34th consecutive month of double-digit growth in June," IATA said today. However, IATA said growth in the first half of 2017 was slightly slower than the year ago period.

The bigger picture is that the very strong upward traffic trend has slowed since the unexpected "demonetisation" in November 2016. "RPKs are still currently trending upwards, albeit at a slower annualised rate of around 7 per cent. All told, domestic India's impressive run of double-digit year-on-year growth looks likely to have ended in July," it noted.

As part of efforts to tackle the black money menace, the Indian government had demonetised old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes in November last year.