Air traffic growth in India may slow down this fiscal: Icra

Air traffic growth in India is likely to slow down marginally this fiscal from last year and profitability of airlines will be under pressure, rating firm Icra said Tuesday. The firm expects domestic passenger traffic to grow by 13-15% during 2017-18, backed by capacity addition and competitive airfares. In June last year, Icra has projected 20-25% domestic growth for 2016-17. The 2016-17 fiscal ended at 21.8%—the second consecutive year with 22% traffic growth. “Icra remains cautious about sustainability of industry profitability considering possible oversupply, resultant predatory airfares, susceptibility to adverse fuel prices and airport infrastructure bottlenecks. The rapid capacity addition…along with sizeable fleet expansion plans of various airlines in the near future might increase the competitive intensity further", Icra, said. <br/>