Indian domestic aviation market sees 17.7% growth in May ‘17 y-o-y

India climbed back to the top of the domestic aviation growth chart in May with a 17.7 per cent year-on-year increase, as per IATA’s Air Passenger Market Analysis. This marks the 33rd consecutive month of double-digit RPK growth. However, the very strong upward SA traffic trend has slowed since the unexpected ‘demonetisation’ in November 2016, in line with the wider impact that this looks to have had on economic activity. Business confidence surveys have recovered somewhat in recent months, particularly on the services side. However, the upward trend in domestic RPKs has slowed to an annualised rate of around 7 per cent over the past six months.
Year-on-year growth in global RPKs slowed to (a still robust) 7.7 per cent in May, having reached a six-year high of 10.9 per cent in April. Industry-wide RPKs have now grown by 7.9 per cent year-on-year so far this year compared to the same period in 2016. This is equivalent to annual growth of around 8.6% once you allow for the extra day in 2016 on account of it having been a leap year.