The News Journal

Global passenger demand for air travel remained strong in September, with both domestic and international traffic increasing, despite macroeconomic headwinds and geopolitical instability, the International Air Transport Association said. Total traffic in September, measured in revenue passenger kilometres, grew 57 per cent compared to the same month in 2021, Iata's monthly report showed. Globally, traffic is now at 73.8 per cent of September 2019 levels, before the Covid-19 pandemic, said the report, which was released on Monday. “Even with economic and geopolitical uncertainties, the demand for air transport continues to recover ground,” said Willie Walsh, Iata's director general. “The outlier is still China, with its pursuit of a zero-Covid strategy keeping borders largely closed.” Airlines' domestic traffic for September was up 6.9 per cent compared to the year-ago period. Total September 2022 domestic traffic was at 81 per cent of pre-Covid levels. International traffic...

 India's civil aviation minister urged Indian airlines on Friday to add more long-haul aircraft to their fleets and to increase flights abroad, as air travel rebounds from a two-year slump due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Domestic passenger numbers are expected to exceed pre-pandemic levels within one year, Jyotiraditya Scindia said during an air show in the Indian city of Hyderabad. But foreign airlines dominate international routes to and from India, which industry experts say is partly because Indian airlines do not have enough wide-body, long-haul planes. “Along with our thrust on narrow-body aircraft, we must also increase our fleet of wide-body aircraft. It is not enough to connect all points in India — we need to connect the world to India,” the minister said. India's aviation market is dominated by narrow-body planes operated by low-cost airlines such as IndiGo. In 2019, Indian airlines operated more than 550 narrow-body planes and less than 60 widebodies. Only two Indian ...