India’s domestic air traffic increases by 1.4% in the first half of the year; IndiGo maintains its lead while Akasa boosts market share.

Domestic airlines transported 864.04 lakh passengers between January and June 2026, reflecting a 1.44% increase from 851.74 lakh passengers during the same period last year, as reported by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) in its June traffic report.

However, the domestic passenger count for June saw a year-on-year decline of 1.03%, dropping to 134.64 lakh from 136.04 lakh passengers in the same month last year.
IndiGo reinforced its leading position in the domestic aviation sector in June, boosting its market share to 66.3% from 64.9% in May. Akasa Air also made gains, increasing its share to 6.4% from 5.8% the previous month.

Conversely, the Air India Group’s domestic market share fell to 23.9% in June from 25.6% in May, while SpiceJet’s share decreased to 1.9% from 2.5%. Both Fly91 and Alliance Air retained their shares at 0.4% each, while Star Air’s share slightly improved to 0.7%.

Passenger load factor

Akasa Air reported the highest passenger load factor among scheduled domestic airlines at 92.2% in June, though it dipped slightly from 92.5% in May. SpiceJet improved its load factor to 87.8% from 87.4%, and the Air India Group’s rose to 85.5% from 83.5%.

IndiGo’s passenger load factor decreased to 85.1% from 86.4% in May. Fly91 improved its load factor to 73.2% from 69.3%, IndiaOne Air rose to 59.3% from 53.5%, Alliance Air increased to 61.7% from 61.2%, while Star Air’s load factor fell to 75.0% from 76.1%.

Flight cancellations

The overall cancellation rate for scheduled domestic airlines was 0.63% in June, up from 0.55% in May.

IndiaOne Air had the highest cancellation rate at 16.43%, followed by SpiceJet at 6.23%, Alliance Air at 6.00%, and Fly91 at 4.15%. Star Air’s cancellation rate was 1.02%, Air India Group’s at 0.49%, while IndiGo and Akasa Air each reported the lowest rate of 0.20%.

Cancellations due to technical reasons comprised the largest share at 39.6%, followed by operational reasons at 36.3%, weather-related disruptions at 20.3%, commercial reasons at 2.1%, and miscellaneous factors at 1.8%.

Passenger complaints

Domestic airlines received 2,568 passenger complaints in June, averaging 1.91 complaints per 10,000 passengers. All complaints were addressed, according to the DGCA report.

Alliance Air recorded the highest complaint rate at 68.6 complaints per 10,000 passengers, followed by SpiceJet at 3.4, both Air India Group and Fly91 at 3.2 each, Akasa Air at 2.0, Star Air at 1.1, and IndiGo at 1.0. IndiaOne Air received no complaints.

Baggage-related complaints were the most common at 27.8%, followed by flight-related issues at 24.3%, refund-related matters at 19.7%, other concerns at 18.3%, customer service at 5.4%, catering at 2.2%, staff behavior at 1.3%, disability-related complaints at 0.7%, and fare-related issues at 0.3%.

On-time performance

Among scheduled domestic airlines at the country’s ten busiest airports, IndiGo achieved the highest on-time performance (OTP) in June at 89.4%, followed by Air India Group at 85.9%, Akasa Air at 82.7%, Alliance Air at 74.7%, and SpiceJet at 33.5%.

Chennai airport had the highest OTP at 95.2%, followed by Hyderabad at 90.3%, Bengaluru at 89.6%, and Kolkata at 89.0%. Ahmedabad airport recorded the lowest OTP at 76.7%.

Reactionary factors accounted for the majority of delays at 69%, with technical and operational reasons cited at 6% each, air traffic control at 5%, and passenger- and weather-related reasons at 4% each, along with airport-related issues at 3%, miscellaneous at 2%, and ramp-related matters at 1%.

Flights delayed beyond two hours

Approximately 1.18% of flights experienced delays of more than two hours in June.

SpiceJet had the highest percentage of such delays at 17.31%, followed by Fly91 at 5.59%, Alliance Air at 2.78%, Air India Group at 1.25%, Akasa Air at 0.87%, Star Air at 0.83%, and IndiGo at 0.55%. IndiaOne Air reported no flights delayed beyond two hours.

Denied boarding, cancellations and delays

According to the DGCA, 1,847 passengers faced denied boarding during June, leading to airlines spending ₹64.84 lakh on compensation and amenities.

Flight cancellations impacted 43,968 passengers, with airlines spending ₹61.98 lakh on compensation and customer support. Delays exceeding two hours affected 1,10,273 passengers, costing airlines ₹284.61 lakh in facilitation.