Domestic air passenger traffic dropped by 4.8% in July, totaling 12 million travelers compared to 12.6 million in the same month last year. This decline is reflected in the lower passenger load factors reported by most major airlines. The data was released by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Thursday.
Despite the July decline, passenger traffic during the first seven months of 2026 remained marginally higher than in the corresponding period last year.
Indian airlines carried 98.4 million passengers during January-July, compared with 97.78 million a year earlier, an increase of 0.64%. IndiGo , India’s largest airline, carried 8.08 million passengers in July, down from 8.92 million in June. The Air India Group, comprising Air India and Air India Express, carried 2.88 million passengers, compared with 3.22 million in June. Akasa Air carried 665,000 passengers in July, down from 861,000 in June, while SpiceJet carried 187,000, compared with 263,000 in the previous month.
The passenger load factor –– the proportion of available seats occupied –– declined for IndiGo, the Air India Group and Akasa Air during the month. The airports covered in the OTP assessment were Delhi , Mumbai , Bengaluru, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Cochin, Guwahati and Lucknow. Despite the fall in passenger numbers, IndiGo’s market share rose to 67.4% in July from 66.3% in June, while the Air India Group’s share edged up to 24% from 23.9%. Akasa Air’s market share fell to 5.5% from 6.4%, while SpiceJet ’s declined to 1.6% from 1.9%. SpiceJet was the exception, with its load factor rising to 74.7% in July from 73.2% in June. The overall cancellation rate of scheduled domestic airlines was 0.62% in July. Technical issues accounted for 39.9% of cancellations, followed by operational reasons at 27.4% and weather-related disruptions at 22.7%, according to the DGCA. IndiGo recorded the highest on-time performance (OTP) among scheduled domestic airlines at 10 major airports, at 91.2%, followed by Akasa Air at 90.8% and the Air India Group at 88.5%. Alliance Air recorded an OTP of 76%, while SpiceJet had the lowest at 34.6%.
