India tops domestic air travel growth in 2015 but trails China, US in size

India is the fastest growing domestic air travel market, but in terms of market size it is still nearly five times smaller than China and nine times smaller than the United States, according to an International Air Transport Association (IATA) report. In 2015, domestic airlines in India flew 81 million passengers, registering a 20% growth over 2014. Growth was driven by low fares and average domestic fares

were 15-20% lower in 2015. In comparison, domestic airlines in China and the United States flew 394 million and 708 million passengers in 2015, with a growth rate of 9.7% and 5.4%, respectively. “With annual growth of 18.8% (in a market of 80 million domestic passengers), India’s performance surpassed that of Russia (11.9% growth, in a market of 47 million domestic passengers), China (9.7% growth, in a market of 394 million domestic passengers) and the United States (5.4% growth, in a market of 708 million domestic passengers)," IATA said on Tuesday.

“Last year (globally), airlines safely carried 3.6 billion passengers — the equivalent of 48% of the earth’s population — and transported 52.2 million tonne of cargo worth around $6 trillion. In doing so, we supported some $2.7 trillion in economic activity and 63 million jobs,” said Tony Tyler, IATA’s Director General and CEO.

Aviation consultancy CAPA estimates domestic traffic in India to cross 100 million in FY17 with 20% year-on-year growth.