Domestic air passenger traffic falls nearly 5 pc in July

New Delhi, Aug 20 (IANS) Domestic air passenger traffic declined nearly 5 per cent year-on-year in July 2026, with airlines carrying around 1.2 crore passengers during the month, according to data released by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).

IndiGo continued to dominate the domestic aviation market, retaining a 67.4 per cent market share. The airline carried 80.82 lakh passengers in July, maintaining a sizeable lead over its competitors.

The Air India Group remained the second-largest airline group in the domestic market, with a 24 per cent share and 28.75 lakh passengers during the month. Akasa Air ranked third with a 5.5 per cent market share, carrying 6.65 lakh passengers.

SpiceJet’s market share stood at 1.6 per cent in July, with the airline carrying 1.87 lakh passengers. The overall decline in domestic passenger traffic came despite IndiGo continuing to account for more than two-thirds of the market.

Airlines also reported significant differences in their on-time performance during the month. IndiGo recorded the highest on-time performance at 91.2 per cent, followed closely by Akasa Air at 90.8 per cent.

Air India’s on-time performance stood at 86.5 per cent in July. In contrast, SpiceJet recorded an on-time performance of 34.5 per cent, substantially lower than that of the other major domestic carriers.

The on-time performance assessment covered 10 major airports, including Bengaluru, Delhi, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Cochin, Guwahati and Lucknow. Under the DGCA’s criteria, a flight is considered delayed if its departure is more than 15 minutes behind the scheduled time.

The overall cancellation rate among scheduled domestic airlines stood at 0.62 per cent in July. Technical issues were the leading reason for cancellations, accounting for 39.9 per cent, followed by operational factors at 27.4 per cent and adverse weather conditions at 22.7 per cent.

The data also showed that around 1.26 per cent of flights were delayed by more than two hours during the month.

–IANS

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