Domestic air passenger traffic slips 5% in July; here’s how IndiGo, SpiceJet shares are faring

According to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) data, domestic air passenger traffic slipped 4.80% to 1.20 crore in July from 1.26 crore recorded in the year-ago month, with all major Indian airlines seeing a drop in the load factor.

The passengers carried by domestic airlines during January-July 2026 increased to 984.03 lakh against 977.79 lakh a year ago, thereby registering an annual growth of 0.64%.

The Gurugram-based IndiGo carried 80.82 lakh passengers during the previous month against 89.20 lakh in June; Tata Sons-owned Air India group flew 28.75 lakh passengers during the reporting period compared to 32.22 lakh in June 2026, DGCA data showed.

The total number of passengers transported by Akasa Air stood at 6.65 lakh in July against 8.61 lakh in June.

IndiGo raised its market share in the previous month to 67.4% from 66.3%, and Air India group market share also rose marginally to 24% from 23.9% in June.

Akasa and SpiceJet saw their market share falling to 5.5% (from 6.4%) and 1.6% (from 1.9%) in June, according to data.

In on-time performance, IndiGo had the highest percentage of its flights (91.2%) departing and arriving on time, followed by Akasa Air (90.8%) to and from 10 domestic airports—Bengaluru, Delhi, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Cochin, Guwahati and Lucknow—during the previous month, according to the aviation safety regulator.

Meanwhile, IndiGo's ticket booking system briefly faced issues on Friday and people were unable to access online services. On Wednesday also, the airline's booking system had experienced issues.

Airline stocks in focus

Opening at ₹5,155 apiece, shares of IndiGo operator InterGlobe Aviation declined over 2% to its intraday low of ₹5,071 apiece on Friday. At 1:15 PM, the stock was trading at ₹5,062.5 per share on the National Stock Exchange, falling 1.98%.

SpiceJet shares, after opening at ₹10.89 apiece on BSE, have jumped 2% to today's high of ₹11.10. At 1:17 PM, the scrip was trading 1.38% higher at ₹11.04 per share.

Since the beginning of the year, IndiGo's shares have declined over 1%, and its market capitalisation stands at ₹1.96 lakh crore.

SpiceJet, with a market capitalisation of ₹1,681.76 crore, has tanked 63% so far since the beginning of 2026.