NEW DELHI: There has been a dip in domestic flyers both on a monthly as well as annual basis, reveals the aviation regulator, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). The recurring problems faced by Spicejet also come to the fore with over 20% of its flights cancelled during August.
The regulator released its `Air Traffic Report’ for January-August 2026 as well as the passenger traffic for August month alone. In the first eight months of this year, scheduled domestic airlines carried 11.05 crore passengers as against 10.07 crore during the corresponding period the previous year marking a dip of (minus) -0.18%. Last month saw 1.29 crore passengers take to the skies versus 1.21 crore in August 2025 marking a dip of (minus) -6.34%.
The report states that the overall cancellation rate of scheduled domestic airlines for August stood at 1.04%. Spicejet topped in the list of airlines which played havoc with passenger plans with 20.92% of its flights cancelled. Akasa Air had the minimum flight cancellations of 0.07% while Air India Group (Air India and Air India Express) recorded 1.14% cancellations and IndiGo, the largest domestic operator had a cancellation rate of a mere 0.33%
Technical issues were the reason behind 50.2% of the cancellations recorded across airlines. Commercial, operational, weather-related and miscellaneous issues were the other contributors.
IndiGo continues its formidable domestic dominance in the domestic market by flying 7.15 crore passengers from Jan –August 2026, giving it a market share of 64.7% while the Air India group came a far second with 2.82 crore flyers during the period. Fly91, India’s youngest airline, has touched 31.37 lakh passengers, showing a steady increase month-on-month with its highest ever passenger count - 58,000 – transported in August.
A total of 2,132 passenger complaints have been received for August from passengers. Of these, 2,123 have been redressed, the report states.
IndiGo has the best On Time Performance at the major airport with 91.5% while the Air India group has an OTP of 83.9%.
