India's domestic air traffic in the first half of 2026: 8.64 crore passengers

Passenger numbers decide how many aircraft airlines fly, and therefore how many pilots they need. Here is how India's domestic market performed in the first half of 2026.

Headline figures (January–June 2026)

• 864.04 lakh domestic passengers, up 1.44% from 851.74 lakh a year earlier
• June: 134.64 lakh passengers, down about 1% from May

Market share

• IndiGo: 555.83 lakh passengers, 64.3%
• Air India group: 221.67 lakh, 25.7%
• Akasa Air: 47.42 lakh, 5.5%
• SpiceJet: 28.10 lakh, 3.3%
• Star Air: 0.6%, Alliance Air: 0.4%, Fly91: 0.3%

IndiGo and the Air India group together carried more than 90% of domestic passengers.

Load factors in June

Load factor is the share of seats filled. Akasa Air led at 92.2%, followed by SpiceJet (87.8%), the Air India group (85.5%) and IndiGo (85.1%).

Reading the numbers

Growth of 1.44% is modest by India's standards. The period included higher fuel prices and airspace restrictions linked to the West Asia conflict, which pushed up costs and fares. High load factors show demand is still strong for the seats airlines do offer.

Why this matters for pilot careers

India's two largest airline groups dominate hiring, so their cadet programmes and recruitment drives matter most for new pilots. Airbus and Boeing still expect Indian traffic to grow far faster than the world average over the next decade. Slow periods are a good time to finish DGCA papers, so you are ready when recruitment opens.