Domestic airlines flew fewer passengers in August this year than it did last year, suggests the latest official data released by DGCA (Directorate General of Civil Aviation).
Not only was there a drop in the number of passengers flown within the country by air, there was also an increase in the number of flight delays hitting people’s schedules.
The data released on Friday revealed there being 1.29 crore passengers flying domestically in August, lower than 1.31 crore people carried in the year-ago period.
However, the quantum of air traffic was higher in August as compared to July, when it stood at 1.26 crore.
IndiGo’s domestic market, meanwhile, fell to 64.2 per cent in August against 65.2 per cent in July, while that of the Air India Group – comprising Air India and Air India Express – rose to 27.3 per cent from 26.2 per cent during the same period.
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“Passengers carried by domestic airlines during January-August 2025 were 1,107.26 lakhs as against 1054.66 lakhs during the corresponding period of the previous year, thereby registering an annual growth of 4.99 per cent and a monthly growth of -1.40 per cent,” DGCA said in its monthly traffic report for August.
Meanwhile, the market share of Akasa Air dipped to 5.4 per cent in August from 5.5 per cent in the previous month, and that of SpiceJet remained unchanged at 2 per cent.
In August, government-owned Alliance Air’s market share slipped to 0.3 per cent from 0.4 per cent in July. Star Air and Fly91’s market share remained unchanged at 0.5 per cent and 0.2 per cent, respectively.
There was also a significant rise in the number of passenger-related complaints filed, with there being 1,407 passenger-related complaints received by the scheduled domestic airlines. The number of complaints per 10,000 passengers carried in August was around 1.09.
As per the DGCA data, a total of 74,381 passengers were affected due to flight delays, and airlines shelled out ₹1.18 crore towards facilitation in August.
Of these, 36,362 passengers were impacted by flight cancellations, with airlines spending ₹64.51 lakh for compensation and facilities.
The body also said a total of 705 passengers were denied boarding, and carriers spent ₹24.52 lakh towards compensation and facilities.
In terms of ‘On-Time Performance’ in August, IndiGo topped the list with 90.6 per cent, followed by Akasa Air (87 per cent), Air India Group (84.5 per cent), SpiceJet (68.2 per cent) and Alliance Air (55.2 per cent).
OTP is computed for six metro airports – Bangalore, Delhi, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Chennai, and Kolkata.
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