Indian aviation market world’s worst in July

Underlining that Indian aviation, a dream story a few years ago, has turned sour, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) reports that Indian domestic traffic fell 1.1 per cent in July compared to a year ago, the worst performance for any market.

Among other factors, this reflects the weakening economy, IATA says in its latest report released on Thursday.

"After expanding at 20 per cent-plus rates through 2010 and early 2011, the Indian market stopped growing at the end of 2011. July capacity rose 2.1 per cent dropping the load factor to 69.6 per cent from 71.8 per cent last year," IATA said.

In May - June too, India had proved the worst-performing market globally. (See: All air travel markets show growth except India: IATA)

Globally, domestic markets experienced slow growth in July. "However, the slowdown was not universal, with China and Brazil recording strong growth that was offset by weakness in India and Japan," the IATA report said.

China's domestic market rebounded sharply from the slowdown earlier this year to post 9 per cent demand growth in July. Japan's domestic market rose just 4.2 per cent versus the year-ago period and actually slipped 1 per cent compared to June.