Airlines flew fewer passengers in Sep; traffic falls 6.5% on annual basis
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The month of September 2026 marked a 6.5% decline in domestic air traffic from the previous year. SpiceJet's market share dwindled from 1.2% to 0.6%, whereas IndiGo and Air India gained traction. IndiGo led in On Time Performance at 91.1%, just ahead of Akasa Air at 90.8%. Sadly, many passengers dealt with a series of flight delays and cancellations across different airlines throughout the month.
New Delhi: Domestic air traffic dropped 6.5 per cent to little over 1.18 crore in September compared to the year-ago period, according to the latest official data.In September, SpiceJet saw its domestic market share slump to 0.6 per cent from 1.2 per cent in August, while that of Air India inched up to 26.8 per cent from 26.7 per cent during the same period.
The market share of IndiGo rose to 65.4 per cent in September from 65 per cent in August, and Akasa Air registered a marginal rise in its market share to 5.6 per cent from 5.5 per cent during the given period, as per the data from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).
Among other scheduled airlines, the domestic market share of Star Air and Fly91 remained unchanged at 0.7 per cent and 0.5 per cent, respectively, in September compared to August.
State-owned Alliance Air's share slipped to 0.4 per cent in September from 0.5 per cent in August, the data showed.
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"Passengers carried by domestic airlines during January - September 2026 were 1,223.53 lakhs as against 1,233.70 lakhs during the corresponding period of the previous year, thereby registering an annual growth of -0.82 per cent and monthly growth of -6.49 per cent," DGCA said in its monthly report for September.
Compared to August, there was a decline of around 2.5 per cent in domestic air traffic in September.
In terms of On Time Performance (OTP) last month, IndiGo topped the list at 91.1 per cent, followed by Akasa Air at 90.8 per cent and that of Air India Group at 81.7 per cent.
The OTP of Alliance Air and SpiceJet stood at 75 per cent and 16.6 per cent, respectively.
DGCA computes OTP of airlines for ten major airports -- Bangalore, Delhi, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Cochin, Guwahati and Lucknow.
Last month, the overall cancellation rate of scheduled domestic airlines was at 1.15 per cent.
As many as 1,08,783 passengers were affected by flight delays in September, with airlines shelling out over Rs 2.86 crore towards facilitation, while cancellations impacted 78,207 passengers and carriers spent Rs 42.79 lakh towards compensation and facilities.
"During September 2026, around 1.19 per cent of the flights were delayed by more than two hours," the report said.
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Figures reflect the source report and its stated period. This article is for information and is not investment advice.
