India’s domestic air traffic falls 4.2% in April amid weak demand and rising costs
Domestic aviation in the country slowed down in April, with passenger traffic slipping 4.2% to just over 1.38 crore compared to March, according to the latest data released by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). The decline comes amid multiple headwinds, including relatively softer travel demand.The DGCA figures showed that airlines transported more than 1.38 crore passengers in April, which is also 3.47% lower than the over 1.43 crore passengers carried in April last year. In comparison with March, when traffic stood at 1.44 crore passengers, April saw a clear month-on-month dip of 4.2%.“Passengers carried by domestic airlines during January – April 2026 were 575.49 lakhs as against 575.13 lakhs during the corresponding period of the previous year thereby registering an annual growth of 0.06% and monthly growth of -3.47%,” DGCA said in its report for the month of April.Airlines have been navigating a difficult operating environment, with rising costs driven by higher fuel prices and relatively subdued demand weighing on performance. In response, carriers have also temporarily reduced parts of their network.Market share trends also shifted during the month. IndiGo strengthened its position, increasing its share to 65% in April from 63.3% in March. The Air India Group, however, saw a decline, with its share falling to 24.7% from 26.2% in the previous month.Among other carriers, Akasa Air’s share rose slightly to 5.8% from 5.4%, while SpiceJet recorded a drop to 3.4% from 3.8%. Alliance Air’s share also contracted, slipping to 0.3% from 0.6%.Passenger experience data indicated that scheduled domestic airlines received 3,266 complaints in April. The complaint rate stood at 2.36 per 10,000 passengers, as per DGCA.Operational performance varied across carriers. IndiGo led on-time performance (OTP) in April at 88.5%, followed by the Air India Group at 82.4%, Akasa Air at 81.4%, Alliance Air at 71.2%, and SpiceJet at 31.2%. OTP is calculated across ten major airports: Bangalore, Delhi, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Cochin, Guwahati and Lucknow.During the month, about 1.12% of flights were delayed by more than two hours.The DGCA further noted that over 1.35 lakh passengers were impacted by flight delays, with airlines incurring little over Rs 2.41 crore in facilitation costs. Separately, 77,065 passengers faced flight cancellations, leading carriers to pay Rs 2.04 crore towards compensation and facilities. In addition, 641 passengers were denied boarding, with airlines disbursing Rs 57.65 lakh for compensation and assistance.
