India's air traffic slows. Here's who's winning through the turbulence

Looks like India's domestic aviation growth is beginning to lose a little altitude.

Domestic airlines carried 864 lakh passengers between January and June 2026, up 1.4% from the same period last year. But June bucked the trend, with passenger traffic falling 1% compared to June 2025, suggesting that growth is beginning to slow.

In short, more Indians are still flying overall, but the pace of growth has started to slow.

Who's pulling ahead: as demand softens, IndiGo continues to strengthen its lead. The airline grew its market share from 64.9% in May to 66.3% in June, while Akasa Air also gained ground, increasing its share from 5.8% to 6.4%.

Meanwhile, the Air India Group saw its market share decline from 25.6% to 23.9%, while SpiceJet slipped from 2.5% to 1.9%, making IndiGo the clear winner, with Akasa Air steadily gaining momentum.

The bigger picture: India's domestic aviation market remains highly concentrated, with IndiGo and the Air India Group together accounting for nearly 90% of all passengers in the first half of 2026.

Although Akasa Air is still a distant third with a 5.5% market share, it recorded the highest seat occupancy (92.2%) in June, signalling strong demand for its flights. Meanwhile, regional carriers like Star Air, Alliance Air, Fly91, and IndiaOne Air continue to serve a much smaller share of the market.