Domestic air passenger traffic dips 2.9% in July; IndiGo retains 65% market share

Domestic air passenger traffic declined by 2.9% year-on-year to 1.26 crore in July, even as IndiGo maintained its lead in the market with a 65.2% share, according to official data.

The fall in air passenger traffic also came against the backdrop of the fatal Air India Ahmedabad-London Gatwick plane crash in which 260 people were killed.

Despite the sequential dip, domestic carriers ferried 9.77 crore passengers between January and July this year, registering a 5.9% growth over 9.23 crore flown in the same period of 2024, as per monthly statistics released by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).

Among individual airlines, IndiGo carried 82.15 lakh passengers during July, cornering the highest market share of 65.2%.

Air India group, comprising Air India and Air India Express, flew 33.08 lakh passengers with a market share of 26.2%, while Akasa Air transported 6.98 lakh passengers, securing a 5.5% share.

SpiceJet carried 2.46 lakh passengers, with a market share of 2%.

The overall passenger load factor (seat occupancy) for airlines ranged from 60.4% for IndiaOne Air to 90.2% for Akasa Air.

IndiGo registered a load factor of 84.1%, while the Air India group reported 78.6%.

In terms of service quality, the aviation regulator said 1,257 passenger complaints were received by domestic carriers in July, translating to around one complaint per 10,000 passengers carried. Nearly all grievances (99.9%) were addressed.

Flight problems remained the biggest cause of concern, accounting for more than 30% of complaints.

IndiGo delivered the highest on-time performance at 91.4% among all domestic airlines in July from the six metro airports -- Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, and Hyderabad -- as per the DGCA data.

The overall cancellation rate for domestic airlines stood at 0.81% in July, with weather conditions accounting for the highest share of cancellations (44.5%), followed by technical issues (29%).