NEW DELHI: The effect of the ongoing geopolitical tensions between the US-Israel and Iran has caused a major dent in international travel from India since then.
According to the Air Traffic Report released by the Airports Authority of India (AAI), there was an 18.5% dip in outbound travel from India during March this year against the steady monthly improvement in patronage in previous months.
The war, closure of airspace by countries and the cancellations of flights to cities in Western Asia as well as the detour to be taken to Europe and the US by flights from India made international travel a nightmare.
The crippling restriction imposed on operations at Dubai International Airport for foreign airlines, a hugely popular destination for Indians, severely impacted travel. Simultaneously, the cancellation of operations to Qatar, a key transit point that connects India with important international markets, dented travel from India.
Only 3.4 lakh flyers from India went abroad in March 2026 as compared to 65.4 lakh in March 2025, thereby causing a major slide of 18.5%. Data released in the previous months reveal that air travel in February this year stood at 65.9 lakh passengers, recording a 3% increase over 64 lakh flyers during February last year. January 2026 witnessed a very healthy growth of 7.1% in international travel, with 77.6 lakh passengers as against 72.4 lakh passengers in January 2025.
The air traffic movement (arrivals and departures) from India for March too has shown a drastic dip of 21.3%. The international travel scene from India is expected to pick up from May as the two biggest operators to the Gulf have announced the complete restoration of their operations to the aviation nerve centre here, Doha.
Air India Express reinstated its operations from April 30 to Qatar with flights from Kochi and Kozhikode to Doha, while IndiGo reinstated its regular schedule of over 60 weekly flights to Doha from the cities of Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kannur, Kochi and Mumbai from May 1. Air India has announced curtailing its international schedule until July due to fuel surges and airspace curbs.
AAI’s report also shared details on the air travel for the financial year 2025-2026 as compared to 2024-2025. For the just-concluded financial year, international traffic from India stood at 8,06,41,496 passengers marking an overall increase of 4.2% over 7,73,82,159 passengers in the previous fiscal.
Domestic travel registered a 1.4% increase in travel in the just-concluded financial year with 33, 94,46,306 flyers as compared to 33,47,03,952 flyers during 2024-2025. The ATM for the financial years compared has shown an improvement of 2.4% in 2025-2026 over the previous financial year.