Domestic air passenger traffic was 120.0 lakh1 in July 2026, 4.8% lower than 126.1 lakh in July 2025 and 10.8% lower than 134.6 lakh in June 2026. The airlines’ capacity deployment in July 2026 was 7.8% lower than July 2025 and 8.5% lower than June 2026. Amid a sluggish demand environment, domestic carriers achieved a passenger load factor (PLF) of 83.1% in July 2026 against 82.9% in July 2025 and 85.7% in June 2026, on the back of lower capacity deployment owing to operational disruptions.

• Domestic air passenger traffic in 4M FY2027 (April–July 2026) was 546.6 lakh, a year-on-year (YoY) growth of 0.1%. In FY2026 (April 2025-March 2026), the same was 1,674.2 lakh, reflecting a modest YoY growth of 1.2%. The international air passenger traffic for Indian carriers grew by 3.9% to 350.0 lakh in FY2026. However, the same declined sharply by 23.0% YoY in 4M FY2027 (April-July 2026) due to the disruptions caused by the West Asian conflict.
• Negative outlook on the Indian aviation industry: ICRA has a Negative outlook on the Indian aviation industry, reflecting the expected weakening of the revenue per available seat kilometre – cost per available seat kilometre (RASK-CASK) spread due to hardening of aviation turbine fuel (ATF) prices and disruptions in the availability of certain international airspaces starting February 28, 2026, following escalation of the conflict in West Asia, coupled with continued depreciation of the INR against the USD.
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