Summer 2018 saw Indians flying more than ever
According to ToI, summer 2018 saw Indians taking to the skies like never before, with numbers of both domestic and international Indian fliers seeing a significant jump. This year's summer holiday season saw 9.4 lakh Indians fly every day, up by 17.7% from the same period last year. Additionally, spurred on due to efforts by carriers, air travel is also growing consistently. Here's more.
India's already stressed airports are becoming busier
India's already stressed airports are becoming busier by the year, and some of them are already operating beyond capacity. On the back of Indian carriers aggressively expanding their fleets, domestic air travel grew by 20.3% in the two-month summer holiday season compared to the same period last year. Meanwhile, international air travel grew by 8.2% in this summer compared to the last.
India's six JV airports saw the bulk of the traffic
This summer season, Indian airports saw a daily average footfall of 9.4 lakh fliers, of which 7.5 lakh were domestic fliers and 1.9 lakh were international fliers. Interestingly, India's six JV airports - at the metro cities, in Kochi, and Nagpur - were far busier than the AAI and state government-operated 109 airports put together.
Airlines cannot operate as many flights as they want to
Despite growth in airlines' fleets, Indian airports haven't been able to keep pace with the explosion in passenger numbers. Owing to airports operating above capacity, airlines don't get slots at key airports like Delhi and Mumbai, as well as growth centers like Patna.
The numbers tell the story
As is obvious from the numbers, India is currently the world's fastest growing air travel market as of May 2018, with a 16.6% year-on-year growth. Following India are China (11.9%), Russia (8.6%), US (5.5%), and Brazil (4.1%). Understandably, investors continue to remain bullish towards the Indian domestic aviation market as demand continues to be supported by a strong growth in domestic airport connections.
