Air passenger traffic takes a hit, declines 2.9% in April-September

Air passenger traffic in India has slipped into contraction, declining 2.9% in the April-September period, with international travel taking a bigger hit than domestic flying. While domestic passenger traffic fell 1.9%, international traffic was down a sharper 7.1%.

The slowdown comes at a time when airlines are grappling with the fallout of the conflict in West Asia. Higher aviation turbine fuel costs, airspace disruptions and longer flight routes have added to operating expenses, forcing airlines to trim capacity or flights and raise fares.

The resulting increase in travel costs may also be weighing on passenger demand. The weakness follows a year of near-stagnant growth. In FY2025-26, passenger traffic grew by just 1.9%, with domestic travel barely inching up and international traffic doing somewhat better.

This marked a sharp deceleration from the double-digit growth recorded in the years immediately after the pandemic. All passenger figures are from Airports Authority of India’s monthly passenger traffic data that calculates both arriving and departing passengers across all airports.

The decline in passenger traffic has been accompanied by a fall in aircraft movements, pointing to a reduction in the number of flights operated by airlines. This reflects not only cancellations of international services but also capacity rationalisation on domestic routes, where some airlines have found it more economical to ground aircraft than operate them amid higher aviation turbine fuel (ATF) costs.

Aircraft movements — counting each landing and take-off — fell 3.5% in April-September compared with the corresponding period last year. Domestic aircraft movements declined 2.9%, while international movements registered a sharper fall of 6.7%.

According to IndiGo CEO William Walsh in a post result’s analyst’s call last month, the airline is seeking to strike a balance between yield management, or the revenue earned per passenger for every kilometre flown, and load factor, or the proportion of seats occupied on an aircraft, to maximise revenue.

This means airlines are willing to let some seats go unsold if that helps them maintain higher fares and maximise overall revenue. IndiGo’s revenue per seat kilometre saw a growth of 34% but seats sold saw 2-percentage point reduction.

Across the industry, there were 5% fewer seats in the July-September period. In October, average airfares were a massive 43% higher compared to the same month last year, according to Consumer Price Index. Of all the 358 goods and services in the CPI basket, airfares saw the largest increase in price (13.36%) from the previous month.

In September, airfares were 29.9% higher compared to the same time previous year. “But demand has held up pretty well” even at the inflated airfares, Mr. Walsh said about the months of July- September. India’s aviation turbine fuel (ATF) prices have risen sharply since the escalation of tensions in the Gulf in February 2026.

In Delhi, the price for domestic airlines has climbed from approximately ₹91.39 per litre in February to ₹138.50 per litre in November. From April- June 8, the government capped the ATF price increase for domestic airlines at 8.5%, limiting the pass-through of an international price shock that would otherwise have more than doubled fuel prices to approximately ₹2.07 lakh per kilolitre.

The impact of the Gulf war on air passenger traffic in 2026 comes on the heels of a year marked by a series of aviation and security-related disruptions that had already weighed on travel. These included the Pahalgam terror attack in April 2025 and Operation Sindoor the following month, which affected travel in northern India; the June 12, 2025 Air India crash in Ahmedabad resulting in 260 deaths, which dented passenger confidence in air travel; and IndiGo’s operational meltdown in November and December, which resulted in nearly 5,000 flight cancellations and impacted nearly 10 lakh passengers, according to DGCA data.

Air passenger traffic in India contracted 2.9% in the April-September period, with domestic traffic declining 1.9% and international traffic registering a sharper 7.1% fall. The slowdown comes against the backdrop of disruptions to air travel caused by the conflict in West Asia, which has also driven up aviation turbine fuel costs, prompting airlines to rationalise operations and raise fares, further weighing on demand.

The previous year too growth remained almost flat. In FY2025-26, total passenger traffic grew 1.9% to 42.01 crore, from 41.21 crore in the previous financial year. International traffic rose 4.2% to 8.06 crore, while domestic traffic increased 1.4% to 33.94 crore.

The drop in passenger numbers doesn’t mean some aircraft were flying empty, but it was accompanied by curtailment of flight capacity that included both domestic and international aircraft movements. Aircraft movements across Indian airports declined 3.5% to 13.77 lakh in April-September 2026, from 14.28 lakh in the corresponding period last year.

Domestic movements fell 2.9% to 11.52 lakh, while international movements registered a sharper decline of 6.7% to 2.25 lakh.