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India's domestic aviation market hit a speed bump in April, with passenger traffic declining both month-on-month and year-on-year.
By the numbers: domestic airlines carried 1.38 crore passengers in April, down from 1.44 crore in March, a decline of 4.2%.
Traffic was also lower than the 1.43 crore passengers carried in April last year, marking a 3.47% year-on-year decline.
Looking at the broader trend, domestic airlines carried 5.75 crore passengers between January and April 2026, compared to 5.75 crore passengers during the same period last year. This translated into annual growth of just 0.06%, indicating that passenger traffic has remained largely flat so far this year.
What's behind the slowdown? a combination of weaker travel demand, rising operating costs, and cautious airline planning appears to be driving the slowdown.
Fuel remains one of the biggest challenges. According to ICRA, aviation turbine fuel (ATF) prices in May 2026 were around 23.5% higher than a year ago. Fuel alone accounts for roughly 30-40% of airline operating costs.
Domestic carriers operated around 97,600 departures in April, with capacity deployment falling 0.6% year-on-year and 1.4% compared to March.
Despite lower passenger traffic, flights continued to operate at relatively high occupancy levels. Passenger load factors stood at 85.9% in April, suggesting airlines are maintaining healthy seat utilisation by controlling supply rather than heavily discounting fares.
Big picture: at the same time, Indian airlines are also facing increasing competition internationally. During the quarter, Indian carriers transported around 8.09 million international passengers, accounting for 42.4% of total international traffic linked to India, down by roughly 1 percentage point from a year ago.
In comparison, foreign airlines increased their market share to 57.6%, carrying 1.10 crore passengers on India-linked international routes.
