Domestic air passenger traffic has grown over 28 per cent to 425,000 in October 2005, compared with 331, 000 in the same period last year.
The highest ever growth rate in passenger traffic has been mainly due to rock bottom fares offered by low-cost carriers, which have started full-fledged operations in the last few months.
In August, the domestic passenger traffic growth rate was 20.1 per cent.
According to the latest data released by the Airports Authority of India, passenger traffic-international and domestic-in October 2005 was 598,000 compared with 481,000 last year.
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International passengers traffic at 173,000 in October 2005 saw growth of 18 per cent compared with 150,000 the same period last year.
"Some of the main factors driving growth are low fares and launch of new services by new carriers. Growth in the international passenger traffic is due to the government's decision to open the skies," said a senior executive with the state-run Indian.
For example, the Amritsar airport has shown high growth due to the starting of schedule operation by Air Deccan from January 2005, and in international sector due to Singapore Airlines starting operations from October 2004. Also, Air India started operation on the Delhi-Amritsar-Birmingham-Toronto route from May 2005.
Similarly, Hyderabad airport has recorded high growth because Lufthansa and Saudi Arabia started operations from February 2005 and March 2005, respectively, while Air Sahara introduced Hyderabad as a major hub from February 2005.
In the international sector, India has seen major expansion by carriers. Indian Airlines started operations to Kuala Lumpur and Kabul from April 2005. Ethiad Airways and Cosmic Air started operations from December 2004 and Azerbaijan Hava Yollari Airlines started operations to New Delhi from July 2005.
According to AAI, higher growth in traffic at Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai, Ahmedabad and Calicut is due to increase in frequency of existing airlines and the start of new operations by Air India Express in southern region and Delta Airlines at Chennai.
The AAI data show that domestic aircraft movements increased by 15.1 per cent during October 2005.
The AAI says that growth in traffic at Hyderabad, Jammu, Bhopal and Visakhapatnam is due to increase in operations by low-cost airlines and an increase in frequency of existing airlines. Low cost airlines-SpiceJet and Kingfisher Airlines-started their operations from May 2005.
Domestic aircraft movements have shown an increase of 14.2 per cent during October 2005, mainly due to new services by low-cost airlines like SpiceJet and Kingfisher Airlines, and increase in number of sectors by Air Deccan.
