Domestic air traffic falls in July: IndiGo leads, SpiceJet trails on punctuality

India's domestic air passenger traffic declined 4.8% in July, with airlines carrying around 12 million passengers compared with 12.6 million in the same month last year, according to data released by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Thursday.

Despite the monthly fall, the overall passenger count for the first seven months of 2026 remained slightly higher than last year.

Between January and July, Indian airlines carried 98.4 million passengers, compared with 97.78 million during the corresponding period in 2025, marking a 0.64% increase.

IndiGo retains dominant market share

IndiGo 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 flew 187,000 passengers compared with 263,000 in June.

Despite lower passenger numbers, IndiGo's market share increased to 67.4% in July from 66.3% in June. The Air India Group also saw a marginal rise, with its share moving from 23.9% to 24%.

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

Load factors mixed, cancellations remain low

Passenger load factors declined for IndiGo, the Air India Group and Akasa Air in July. SpiceJet was the exception, with its load factor rising to 74.7% from 73.2% in June.

The cancellation rate across scheduled domestic airlines stood at 0.62% during the month.

Technical issues accounted for 39.9% of cancellations, followed by operational reasons at 27.4% and weather-related disruptions at 22.7%, according to DGCA data.

IndiGo tops on-time performance

IndiGo recorded the best on-time performance (OTP) among scheduled domestic airlines at 10 major airports, with a score of 91.2%.

Akasa Air followed at 90.8%, while the Air India Group recorded an OTP of 88.5%.

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

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