Domestic air passenger growth has lost the high double-digit momentum with a growth of 5.62 percent in February–which is a 53-month low–with the airlines flying 11.34 million passengers compared to 10.74 million, according to the DGCA data released Wednesday.
The last time such a low growth was reported in July 2014 when incremental traffic grew 7.19 percent, while in August 2014 the same was at 8 percent. Since September 2014 the market has been clipping at double-digits which lasted till December 2018. Come January 2019, the growth rate slipped to 9.1 percent.
Significantly, almost all major carriers operated a truncated schedule, mostly led by the crippled Jet Airways and budget carrier Indigo which had to cancel hundreds of flights in the month due to a host of reasons.
