By Express News Service CHENNAI: Chennai Airport has witnessed an increase in domestic passengers. Airport Authority of India’s data reveals that domestic traffic increased from 13.74 lakh passengers in September to 13.79 lakh passengers in October. This comes as The International Air Transport Association in a report said that Indian airlines saw their domestic traffic rise 3.6%, up from 1.9% in September, supported by the start of the main tourist season. However, when compared to the previous year, IATA says growth remains well below 2018 levels, reflecting the economic slowdown and the impact of the collapse of Jet Airways. Last year in October, Chennai Airport had domestic traffic of 14.08 lakh.The airport also had more international visitors when compared to last month. A total of 4.91 lakh passengers visited Chennai in October when compared to 4.78 lakh in September. IATA said that global passenger traffic data for October showed that demand (measured in total revenue passenger kilometer) climbed 3.4% compared to the year-ago period. This was a modest slowdown from 3.9% growth recorded in September, owing to softer traffic performance in domestic markets. October capacity (available seat kilometers) increased by 2.2% and load factor climbed 0.9 percentage point to 82.0%, which was a record for October. The report from IATA said that demand for domestic travel climbed 3.6% in October compared to October 2018, down from 5.1% annual growth recorded in September, owing to softer performance in the US and China, the largest domestic markets. Interestingly, domestic traffic in the 20 international airports of India was 76.9 lakh in October 2018 and this year, the traffic was 76.69 lakh, a fall of meagre 0.3%.

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