Domestic air traffic rises to 4.37 cr in March quarter; flight delays hit 1.21 lakh passengers last month

New Delhi: Indian airlines carried more than 4.37 crore passengers on domestic routes in the first three months of 2026, marking a marginal increase over the year-ago period, according to official data released on Wednesday.

In March this year, the air traffic inched up to 1.44 crore from 1.41 crore in February, but was lower than the 1.45 crore recorded in March 2025.

IndiGo's market share rose to 63.3 per cent in March from 63.1 per cent in February, while that of Air India Group dropped to 26.2 per cent from 27 per cent during the same period.

Akasa Air and Alliance Air saw their respective market shares increase to 5.4 per cent and 0.6 per cent, respectively, in March.

However, the market share of SpiceJet dipped to 3.8 per cent in March this year, while that of Fly91 remained unchanged at 0.2 per cent.

"Passengers carried by domestic airlines during January - March 2026 were 437.31 lakhs as against 431.98 lakhs during the corresponding period of the previous year, thereby registering an annual growth of 1.23 per cent and a monthly growth of -0.87 per cent," DGCA said in its monthly report.

In terms of On-Time Performance (OTP), IndiGo topped the list at 88.7 per cent, followed by Akasa Air at 82.6 per cent, Air India Group (78 per cent), Alliance Air (62.9 per cent) and SpiceJet (43 per cent).

OTP of scheduled domestic airlines has been computed for ten major airports -- Bangalore, Delhi, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Cochin, Guwahati and Lucknow.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said that around 0.92 per cent of the flights were delayed by more than two hours in March.

Airlines shelled out Rs 3.19 crore towards the facilitation of over 1.21 lakh passengers who were impacted by flight delays, while Rs 93.49 lakh was spent for compensation and facilities provided to 66,784 passengers affected by flight cancellations in March.

As per the data, 951 passengers were denied boarding last month, and airlines spent Rs 97.42 lakh for compensation and facilities.

In the financial year 2025-26, IndiGo had the highest OTP for ten months, including March.

The airline had faced massive operational disruptions resulting in flight cancellations in December 2025.