India’s domestic air traffic rises 7pc in Nov despite IndiGo-related disruptions

New Delhi, Dec 30 India’s domestic passenger traffic rose 7 per cent year‑on‑year (YoY) to 15.2 million in November 2025, driven by festive season demand, even as momentum moderated towards the month-end, a report said on Tuesday.

Emkay Global Financial Services in the report said that as operations normalised by mid-Dec-25, passenger volumes stabilised, while weather-related disruptions weighed on On-Time Performance (OTP) and cancellations.

However, daily trends in December 2025 till date indicate flat YoY growth, largely owing to airline-wide operational disruptions at IndiGo in the first half of the month, it said.

IndiGo faced disruptions from weather, software problems and the implementation of Flight Duty Time Limitation (FDTL) norms, which pushed its market share down 200 basis points month‑on‑month to 63.6 per cent in Nov‑25, the report said.

SpiceJet’s share rose 110 basis points to 3.7 per cent, supported by additional slots, fleet expansion and higher available seat kilometres in the winter schedule. The Air India Group’s share increased 100 basis points to 26.7 per cent.

Passenger load factor (PLF) witnessed improvement across key airlines in Nov-25, with the Air India Group leading the pack with the highest monthly uptick of 10.2 per cent.

IndiGo and SpiceJet saw PLFs of 88.7 per cent and 87.7 per cent respectively, and Akasa recorded 93.8 per cent.

Cancellations showed a mixed trend during the month, with Indigo recording the highest cancellation rate at 1.57 per cent (up from 0.48 per cent MoM).

On‑time performance weakened amid weather disruptions as IndiGo’s OTP fell to 69 per cent from 84.1 per cent, the Air India Group’s to 69.1 per cent from 79.3 per cent, while SpiceJet logged the lowest OTP at 48.4 per cent.

Given currently softening refining cracks and a decline in crude oil prices, we expect aviation turbine fuel prices for Jan-25 to decline by 5-6 per cent MoM from current levels of Rs 99.7 per litre (in Delhi), the firm forecasted.

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