Demand for air travel slowed down, number of domestic passengers decreased by 4.2% in April

India’s domestic aviation sector witnessed a decline in the number of passengers in April, with airlines carrying only a little more than 1.38 crore passengers. According to the latest data released by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), the traffic in April was 4.2 percent less than the traffic of 1.44 crore passengers in March and 3.47 percent less than the 1.43 crore passengers who traveled in April last year.

According to DGCA, domestic airlines carried 575.49 lakh passengers between January and April 2026, showing a marginal annual growth of 0.06 percent compared to the same period last year. The slowdown comes at a time when airlines are facing a number of challenges, including declining travel demand, rising fuel prices and network changes to handle operational pressures.

IndiGo’s market share increased

Despite the overall decline, IndiGo strengthened its hold in the domestic market and increased its market share from 63.3 percent to 65 percent in April. During the same period, the share of Air India Group decreased from 26.2 percent to 24.7 percent. Akasa Air made a slight improvement in its market share to 5.8 percent, while SpiceJet’s share slipped to 3.4 percent.

In terms of punctuality, IndiGo was the best performing airline with 88.5 per cent on-time performance (OTP) at major airports. This was followed by Air India Group and Akasa Air. DGCA data also mentions operational disruptions during this month. More than 1.35 lakh passengers were affected by flight delays, while more than 77,000 passengers faced cancellation of flights. Airlines collectively paid several crores of rupees as compensation and convenience fees.

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