Domestic air passenger traffic beats global trend, up by 8.9% in July, RPK growth above expectations: IATA

New Delhi: At a time when the global air passenger growth is decreasing, Indian domestic air passenger market clocked an 8.9 percent growth in July this year when compared to the same month last year, international airlines body IATA said on Friday. Moreover, India’s July RPK (revenue passenger kilometre) growth at 8.9 percent was higher than what was observed in June this year at 8.2 percent. [caption id=“attachment_4469167” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. Reuters[/caption] RPK measures actual air passenger volume and is calculated by multiplying number of passengers to the number of kilometres travelled by them. On India, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) said in its analysis, “The market has not yet returned to the double-digit growth rates that were the norm in the past 4-5 years.” “Yet it seems to be adjusting well to the disruption caused by the demise of Jet Airways; capacity is also back on track (7.1 percent year-on-year in July vs 3.4 percent in June),” it added. The full-service carrier Jet Airways had shut down its operations on April 17 this year due to a lack of funds. This led to a sudden decrease in total number of flights in India, leading to a decrease in passenger growth. IATA represents some 290 airlines, comprising 82 percent of the global air traffic. On Friday, it said global passenger growth slowed in July. “Total (global) RPKs rose 3.6 percent, compared with the same month in 2018. This was down from 5.1 percent annual growth recorded in June,” the airlines’ body added. Chinese domestic air passenger market recorded an 11.7 percent annual growth in July this year when compared to the same month last year, said IATA.