Domestic air traffic declines 2.94% to 1.26 crore in July: DGCA

Air India had in the last week of June announced a 5 per cent reduction in the domestic capacity to carry out comprehensive checks on its fleet.

Domestic air passenger traffic declined 2.94 per cent year-on-year to 1.26 crore in July, according to official data released on Wednesday.

The fall in air passenger traffic also came against the backdrop of the fatal Air India Ahmedabad-London Gatwick plane crash on June 12 in which 260 people were killed.

Indian carriers had flown 1.29 crore passengers in July 2024 on domestic routes, as per the data posted by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on its website.

On a sequential basis, Air India Group lost 1 per cent market share during the month under review at 33.08 lakh passengers against 33.08 lakh carried by the airline in June.

Air India had in the last week of June announced a 5 per cent reduction in the domestic capacity to carry out comprehensive checks on its fleet.

On the contrary, market leader IndiGo, increased its market share to 65.2 per cent from 64.5 per cent in overall traffic, though on a month-on-month basis the Gurugram-based carrier flew fewer passengers at 82.15 lakh in July as against 87.74 lakh in June 2025.

The two other major carriers -- Akasa Air and SpiceJet -- saw a marginal rise in market share during the month at 5.5 per cent and 2 per cent month-on-month, respectively, as per the DGCA data.

The Air India Group also saw its load factor dropping to 78.6 per cent in the previous month from 81.5 per cent in June. The load factor for other leading airlines also dropped in July as compared to June.

Load factor measures the percentage of seats occupied in an airline's flight.

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