India's domestic air passenger traffic experienced a 4.80 per cent decline in July 2026, yet market leaders IndiGo and Air India Group managed to increase their market share amidst the overall slowdown, as revealed by recent DGCA data.
Key Points
- Domestic air passenger traffic in India fell by 4.80 per cent in July 2026, recording 1.20 crore passengers compared to 1.26 crore in the same month last year.
- All major Indian airlines, including IndiGo, Air India Group, Akasa Air, and SpiceJet, experienced a decline in their load factors during July.
- Despite the overall traffic dip, IndiGo increased its market share to 67.4 per cent, and the Air India Group's market share marginally rose to 24 per cent.
- Akasa Air and SpiceJet saw their market shares decrease to 5.5 per cent and 1.6 per cent, respectively, in July.
- IndiGo maintained the highest on-time performance among major airlines, with 91.2 per cent of its flights operating on schedule.
Domestic air passenger traffic slipped 4.80 per cent to 1.20 crore in July from 1.26 crore recorded in the year-ago month, with all major Indian airlines seeing a drop in the load factor, DGCA data released on Thursday showed.
Annual Growth and Airline Performance
Passengers carried by domestic airlines during January-July 2026 increased to 984.03 lakh against 977.79 lakh a year ago, thereby registering an annual growth of 0.64 per cent, according to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).
Gurugram-based IndiGo carried 80.82 lakh passengers during the previous month against 89.20 lakh in June; Tata Sons-owned Air India group flew 28.75 lakh passengers during the reporting period compared to 32.22 lakh in June 2026, DGCA data showed.
The total number of passengers transported by Akasa Air stood at 6.65 lakh in July against 8.61 lakh in June.
Passenger volumes at SpiceJet were seen at 1.87 lakh in the previous month against 2.63 lakh passengers in June, it said.
Market Share Dynamics and On-Time Performance
IndiGo raised its market share in the previous month to 67.4 per cent from 66.3 per cent, and Air India group market share also rose marginally to 24 per cent from 23.9 per cent in June.
Akasa and SpiceJet saw their market share falling to 5.5 per cent (from 6.4 per cent) and 1.6 per cent (from 1.9 per cent) in June, according to data.
In on-time performance, IndiGo had the highest percentage of its flights (91.2 per cent) departing and arriving on time, followed by Akasa Air (90.8 per cent) to and from 10 domestic airports -- Bengaluru, Delhi, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Cochin, Guwahati and Lucknow -- during the previous month, according to the aviation safety regulator.
