India domestic air passenger traffic declines marginally in Jan-Aug 2026 (YoY): DGCA

India's domestic air passenger traffic declined marginally by 0.18 per cent year-on-year during January-August 2026, as per the data shared by Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).

According to the data, the overall cancellation rate of scheduled domestic airlines stood at 1.04 per cent in August 2026.

"Passengers carried by domestic airlines during January - August 2026 were 1105.30 lakhs as against 1107.26 lakhs during the corresponding period of the previous year thereby registering an annual growth of -0.18 % and monthly growth of -6.34 %." it said.


The passenger load factor of most scheduled domestic airlines declined in August compared with July.

Akasa Air recorded the highest load factor at 87.6 per cent, down from 94.9 per cent in July, followed by SpiceJet at 79.9 per cent and IndiGo at 79.2 per cent. Air India Group's load factor fell to 77 per cent from 83.2 per cent, while Fly91 edged up to 75 per cent from 74.7 per cent. Star Air declined to 73.6 per cent from 74.3 per cent and Alliance Air to 58.8 per cent from 59.5 per cent. IndiaOne Air was the only other airline to record an increase, with its load factor rising to 47.5 per cent from 44.5 per cent.

Among airlines, SpiceJet recorded the highest cancellation rate at 20.92 per cent, followed by IndiaOne Air at 10.60 per cent and Alliance Air at 4.58 per cent. Fly91 reported a cancellation rate of 1.35 per cent, Air India Group 1.14 per cent, Star Air 0.90 per cent, IndiGo 0.33 per cent, and Akasa Air 0.07 per cent.

Within this, technical issues accounted for the largest share of airline cancellations at 50.2 per cent, followed by operational reasons at 20.4 per cent and miscellaneous factors at 17.4 per cent.

Weather-related disruptions contributed 8.5 per cent of cancellations, while commercial reasons accounted for the remaining 3.5 per cent.

It further noted, "During August 2026, around 1.39% of the flights were delayed by more than two hours. The airline-wise details of flights, which are delayed by more than two hours is as follows."

SpiceJet recorded the highest share of such delays at 48.05 per cent, followed by Fly91 at 3.46 per cent, Alliance Air at 2.47 per cent and Air India Group at 1.29 per cent. Star Air reported 0.70 per cent, Akasa Air 0.45 per cent and IndiGo 0.44 per cent, while IndiaOne Air reported no flights delayed by more than two hours, as per the data.