India Air Passenger Traffic Falls 3% To 13.8 Million In April

India's domestic aviation market faced a challenging April as passenger traffic declined by more than 3% compared to the same month last year.

Domestic airlines carried 13.81 million passengers during the month, making it the weakest monthly performance of 2026 so far. The decline wiped out gains recorded during January and February.

Industry experts attribute the slowdown to uncertainty arising from the West Asia conflict, economic pressures and softer consumer sentiment.

Passenger demand remained subdued despite April traditionally marking the beginning of India's summer travel season.

Many consumers adopted a cautious approach to discretionary spending due to economic uncertainty and concerns over employment, particularly in sectors such as information technology.

A severe heatwave across several parts of the country also discouraged travel, adding further pressure on airline demand.

Airline departures during April were already down 2% compared to the same period last year.

IndiGo Strengthens Market Leadership

Despite the overall slowdown, IndiGo continued to increase its dominance in the Indian aviation market.

The airline's market share rose to 65%, gaining 1.7 percentage points compared to the previous month.

In contrast, the Air India Group saw its market share fall below 25%, ending April at 24.7%. The decline reflected ongoing operational and financial challenges faced by the carrier.

Akasa Air maintained its position as India's third-largest airline with a market share of 5.8%.

SpiceJet, however, continued to struggle. Its market share slipped to 3.4%, while operational performance remained under pressure.

According to DGCA data, SpiceJet recorded an on-time performance of only 31.2% across major airports. More than 12% of its flights were delayed by over two hours during the month.

International Travel Also Under Pressure

The slowdown was not limited to domestic routes.

Indian airlines experienced a 37.2% decline in international flights and a 39.3% drop in international passengers compared with April 2025.

Since many international travellers use domestic connections to reach their final destinations, weaker overseas traffic also affected domestic demand.

With airlines already reducing flight capacity for the lean June-August period, industry observers expect traffic growth to remain under pressure in the coming months.