'More Flights From Non-Metro Cities Spur Overseas Travel'

New Delhi: Thanks to increased air connectivity from non-metro cities, more number of passengers are flying out of the country for leisure trips, says a report.

The country's aviation sector has been witnessing robust growth over the last two years, especially in the domestic sector, while the trends have been good in the international segment also.

According to travel firm Cox & Kings, the increase in international flight operations from airports in tier 2 cities like Lucknow, Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Kochi has fuelled the demand for outbound travel.

Passengers travelling overseas for leisure travel from these cities has doubled in the last one year and is expected to grow, the firm said.

"The growth generated from these tier 2 cities stands at between 25 to 30 per cent" and are catered to by full-service as well as low cost carriers, it added.

The conclusions are based on comparison between travel trends in the first three months of 2017 and the same period a year ago.

Cox & Kings' Head (Relationships) Karan Anand said the outbound travel market is growing between 12 to 15 per cent year-on-year, mainly on account of tier 2 and tier 3 cities.

As per data available with aviation regulator DGCA, domestic air traffic grew around 23 per cent in 2016 while it was 10 per cent in terms of international passenger traffic.

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