India’s aviation story hits turbulence: Domestic passenger traffic falls 4.2% in April as demand softens

Domestic airlines carried a little over 1.38 crore passengers in April, down 4.2% from 1.44 crore passengers in March, according to the latest data released by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).

On a year-on-year basis, traffic was lower by 3.47% compared with more than 1.43 crore passengers carried in April 2025. The weakness comes after a steady start to the year. 

During January-April 2026, domestic airlines carried 575.49 lakh passengers, almost unchanged from 575.13 lakh passengers in the same period last year. 

This translated into a marginal annual growth of 0.06%, showing that the domestic aviation market has broadly remained flat in the first four months of the year.

The April numbers point to pressure across the aviation value chain. Airlines are facing higher operating costs, especially on account of fuel, while demand has softened after the earlier travel-heavy months.

Several carriers have also trimmed parts of their network temporarily, affecting overall capacity in the market.

As per a recently published PTI report, the industry remains highly consolidated, with IndiGo strengthening its lead in April. The airline’s market share rose to 65% from 63.3% in March, even as overall domestic traffic declined. 

Air India Group’s share fell to 24.7% from 26.2% during the same period. Akasa Air improved its share marginally to 5.8% in April from 5.4% in March, while SpiceJet’s share declined to 3.4% from 3.8%. 

State-owned Alliance Air’s share fell to 0.3% from 0.6%.

As per analysts interviewed by PTI, data posted by DGCA so far suggests that even in a weaker demand environment, larger and more operationally stable carriers are better placed to capture traffic. 

IndiGo’s higher share indicates that the airline continued to gain from its scale and stronger operational reliability. Air India Group, which is in the middle of a larger integration and turnaround exercise, saw its market share moderate in April.

Passenger experience also remained a key area of concern. Scheduled domestic airlines received 3,266 passenger-related complaints in April. The number of complaints per 10,000 passengers carried stood at 2.36.

IndiGo posts highest on time performance 

On-time performance showed a wide gap between carriers. IndiGo topped the list with an OTP of 88.5%, followed by Air India Group at 82.4%, Akasa Air at 81.4%, Alliance Air at 71.2% and SpiceJet at 31.2%. 

OTP was measured across ten major airports — Bengaluru, Delhi, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Cochin, Guwahati and Lucknow.

Flight disruptions continued to affect passengers. Around 1.12% of flights were delayed by more than two hours in April. More than 1.35 lakh passengers were affected by delays, with airlines spending a little over Rs 2.41 crore towards facilitation.

Cancellations affected 77,065 passengers during the month, for which airlines paid Rs 2.04 crore towards compensation and facilities. Another 641 passengers were denied boarding, with airlines shelling out Rs 57.65 lakh in compensation and facilities.

For the industry, April’s numbers underline a key concern: India remains one of the world’s fastest-growing aviation markets over the long term, but short-term growth is vulnerable to cost pressure, capacity discipline and demand softness. 

A flat January-April passenger tally also shows that headline demand growth has cooled sharply compared with the strong recovery phase seen after the pandemic.

The coming months will be important for airlines, especially as summer travel demand, fuel prices, aircraft availability and fare levels determine whether the April decline was a temporary slowdown or the start of a more cautious phase for domestic aviation.