Domestic aviation in the country slowed in April, with passenger traffic falling by 4.2% to just over Rs 1.38 lakh crore compared to March, according to the latest data from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).
The decline comes amid multiple headwinds, including relatively weak travel demand.DGCA figures showed that airlines carried over 1.38 crore passengers in April, which is also 3.47% lower than the over 1.43 crore passengers carried in April last year. Compared to March, when traffic stood at 1.44 crore passengers, April saw a clear month-on-month decline of 4.2%.“The number of passengers carried by local airlines during the period from January to April 2026 was 575.49 thousand compared to 575.13 thousand during the corresponding period of the previous year, recording an annual growth of 0.06% and a monthly growth of -3.47%,” the DGCA said in its April report.Airlines are facing a difficult operating environment, with rising costs due to rising fuel prices and relatively weak demand weighing on performance. In response, telecom companies have also temporarily downgraded parts of their network.Market share trends also changed during the month. IndiGo strengthened its position, increasing its share to 65% in April from 63.3% in March. However, the Air India group saw a decline, with its share falling to 24.7% from 26.2% in the previous month.
Among other airlines, Acasa Air’s share rose slightly to 5.8% from 5.4%, while SpiceJet recorded a decline to 3.4% from 3.8%. Alliance Air’s share also shrank, falling to 0.3% from 0.6%.Passenger experience data indicated that domestic airlines received 3,266 complaints in April. The complaints rate was 2.36 per 10,000 passengers, according to the General Directorate of Civil Aviation.Operating performance varies across carriers. IndiGo topped the on-time performance (OTP) in April with 88.5%, followed by Air India Group with 82.4%, Akasa Air with 81.4%, Alliance Air with 71.2% and SpiceJet with 31.2%.
OTP is calculated across ten major airports: Bangalore, Delhi, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Cochin, Guwahati and Lucknow.During the month, about 1.12% of flights were delayed by more than two hours.The DGCA also noted that over 1.35 lakh passengers were affected by flight delays, with airlines incurring a little over Rs 2.41 lakh crore in facilitation costs. Separately, 77,065 passengers faced flight cancellations, prompting airlines to pay Rs 2.04 lakh crore towards compensation and facilities. In addition, 641 passengers were denied boarding, and the airlines disbursed Rs 57.65 lakh as compensation and assistance.