New Delhi, March 9 (IANS): The government said on Monday that passenger traffic in the country grew by 11.8 percent at 157.20 million during the period April-January, 2014-15 from 140.66 million passengers ferried during the corresponding period of the previous year.

Minister of State for Civil Aviation Mahesh Sharma said the rise in air passenger and air cargo traffic was an assorted result of various factors, including economic environment, commercial factors, increased traffic demand and load handling capacity of airports and airlines.

"All the airports in the country have sufficient capacity to cater to the increasing air passenger and air cargo traffic," said Sharma in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.

The Indian airports have a combined capacity to cater to 220.04 million passengers and 4.63 million tonnes cargo per annum. They handled 168.92 million passengers and 2.28 million tonnes cargo in 2013-14.

The freight traffic during the period under review was up 11.7 percent at 2,110.12 tonnes from 1,888.94 tonnes handled during the corresponding period of last year.

Aircraft movement during the period under review grew by 4.5 percent at 1,338.55 from 1,280.41.