Mumbai, Feb 04: IndiGo witnessed a significant erosion of its market dominance in the month of December, losing 4.7% of its market share following a severe operational turmoil. Data released by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Tuesday confirms that the airline’s market share slumped to 59.6% in December, down from 63.6% in November.
Operational turmoil during peak season
The operational meltdown, primarily triggered by the airline’s struggle to adapt to revised Flight Duty Time Limitations (FDTL) for pilots, led to a cascade of flight cancellations and delays during the peak winter travel season. IndiGo, which usually commands a dominant market share of around 64%, recorded cancellations of 5,689 flights in the month.
Sharp fall in passenger numbers
IndiGo usually captures around 64–65% market share of domestic passengers, but the share dropped for the first time in long months to 59.6% in December as it reported a sharp 12% sequential decline from 96.93 lakh passengers in November to 85.23 lakh in December.
Industry-wide impact
The crisis at IndiGo, which typically accounts for nearly two-thirds of the domestic market, had a cooling effect on the entire industry. Although the number of domestic passengers carried by Indian airlines in 2025 increased by 3.48%, reaching 16.69 crore from 16.13 crore during the previous year, analysts believe the figures for the year could have been higher if the IndiGo crisis had not occurred during the peak travel season. Monthly passenger traffic in December 2025 was recorded at 1.43 crore against 1.49 crore in the previous year, signifying a drop of 4.14%.
“December is historically the busiest month for Indian aviation. The contraction in traffic is a direct result of the capacity vacuum created by IndiGo’s operational constraints,” said an aviation analyst.
Over 16 lakh passengers affected
The DGCA report highlights the staggering scale of IndiGo’s crisis, revealing that over 16 lakh passengers were directly impacted by the airline’s service failures in a single month. This includes 9.82 lakh passengers affected due to flight cancellations, 6.39 lakh affected due to delays of over two hours, while 24 passengers were denied boarding. In total, 10.46 lakh passengers across airlines were affected by cancellations, 8.34 lakh by delays and 2,050 by denied boarding in the month of December.
Compensation and passenger care
While the airline spent over Rs 22.74 crore on providing alternate flights and refunds for passengers affected due to cancellations, it only provided refreshments to passengers affected due to delays. On the other hand, the Air India Group spent over Rs 2.86 crore on facilitating refreshments and transfers to other airlines for passengers affected by delayed flights.
Cancellation rates higher than industry average
IndiGo’s cancellation rate for the month stood at 9.65%, significantly higher than the industry average of 6.92%. While IndiaOne Air registered the highest cancellation rate at 13.45%, Akasa Air reported the lowest at 0.93%. Airlines cited operational reasons behind almost 64% of the cancellations, while over 31% were attributed to weather-related issues.
Spike in passenger complaints
The aviation regulator received 29 lakh passenger complaints in December, with IndiGo receiving 31.7 complaints per 10,000 passengers, the highest after Alliance Air’s 54.7 per 10,000. Flight-related problems and baggage complaints saw a steep jump at 60.2% and 28.1%, respectively, during the month. The DGCA stated that 99.9% of the complaints were addressed.
On-time performance at metro airports
IndiGo managed to record a decent on-time performance (OTP) for the month, with an average of 62.7% at six metro airports. However, Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport recorded the lowest OTP among metro airports at 48.8%. Notably, IndiGo’s OTP at CSMIA was recorded at 42.3%. Around 64% of the delays were attributed to reactionary reasons by airlines.
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Rivals gain as IndiGo scales back
As IndiGo scaled back, rival carriers moved quickly to absorb the displaced demand. The Air India Group was the primary beneficiary, seeing its market share climb from 26.7% in November to 29.6% in December. Similarly, Akasa Air, SpiceJet, Fly91 and Star Air also recorded minor growth.
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