Reflecting India's latent potential to become a major aviation market, a private survey has shown that the domestic passenger air traffic has outstripped the growth in traffic coming in and going out of the country this year.
While domestic traffic grew at 24.4 per cent in August this year compared with 17.8 per cent in April, international traffic in fact declined from 17.2 per cent to 11.9 in the same period, the Assocham Eco Pulse (AEP) study said.
The growth in domestic traffic was fuelled by the increase in number of passengers flying the low cost carriers and increase in international tourists on domestic sectors as well as flights connecting new destinations, the study showed.
While there was a boom in domestic traffic, the airport infrastructure problems were clearly visible, not just due to fog but heavy congestion created with the launch of budget carriers.
Between February and July this year, aircraft movement increased from minus 0.7 per cent to a whopping 7 per cent. The international aircraft movement ranged between 19.7 per cent and 21.8 per cent, it said quoting data compiled by the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy and the Airports Authority of India.
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