India's domestic passenger traffic grew by 20.2 pct: IATA

India's domestic air passenger traffic grew by a whopping 20.2 per cent in 2015 over the previous year, helped by higher economic growth and increase in number of flights across domestic airlines network, according to the global airlines body IATA.

"Total domestic travel grew by 6.3 per cent in 2015, although there was a wide dispersion in performance by market. The India and China domestic markets led the way, with both registering double-digit annual growth (20.2 per cent and 10.9 per cent respectively)," the International Air Transport Association (IATA) said in its latest report.

Globally, international passenger traffic rose 6.5 per cent during 2015 compared to 2014 while capacity (addition of aircraft in the network) increased by 5.9 per cent.

As per the IATA, Indian carriers also recorded a higher seat occupancy during 2015 over 2014, IATA said.

The growth in India's domestic air traffic was more than three-folds of the global average of 6.3 per cent.

"All markets (globally) showed growth, led by India and China but there was wide variance. Capacity rose 5.2 per cent and load factor by 0.9 per cent over 2014 to a record 81.5 per cent," it said.

In the case of India, rise in domestic traffic was strongly helped by solid economic growth and an 8.3 per cent increase in the average frequency of flights on each route over the year, the airlines' body said.

India's economic growth for the fiscal 2014-15 stood at 7.2 per cent against 6.6 per cent recorded in FY14, reported PTI.

According to IATA, the domestic load factor of Indian airlines' jumped by 6.7 per cent from 2014 to a record high of 83.2 per cent.

"Last year's very strong performance, against a weaker economic backdrop, confirms the strong demand for aviation connectivity. But even as the appetite for air travel increased, consumers benefited from lower fares compared to 2014," IATA Director General and Chief Executive Officer Tony Tyler said.

Aviation delivered strong results for the global economy in 2015, enabling connectivity and helping drive economic development, he said.