Domestic Air Passenger Traffic Falls 4.8% in July to 12 Million as Load Factors Dip

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 during the same period a year earlier, marking 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.

Despite the decline in passenger numbers, IndiGo’s market share increased to 67.4% in July from 66.3% in June. The Air India Group’s market share also edged up to 24% from 23.9%.

Akasa Air’s market share declined to 5.5% from 6.4%, while SpiceJet’s share fell to 1.6% from 1.9%.

The passenger load factor, which represents the proportion of available seats occupied, declined for IndiGo, the Air India Group and Akasa Air during July. SpiceJet was the exception, with its load factor rising to 74.7% from 73.2% in June.

The overall cancellation rate of scheduled domestic airlines stood at 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%. It was followed by Akasa Air at 90.8% and the Air India Group at 88.5%.

Alliance Air recorded an OTP of 76%, while SpiceJet recorded the lowest at 34.6%.

The airports covered in the OTP assessment were Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Cochin, Guwahati and Lucknow.

The July decline highlights a weaker month for domestic air passenger traffic, even as cumulative passenger numbers for January-July 2026 remained marginally above the corresponding period last year.