IndiGo crisis dents December traffic as domestic flyers fall 4.1%: DGCA

NEW DELHI: IndiGo’s massive flight disruptions in December 2025 saw the airline fly 85.2 lakh domestic passengers — almost 12% less than the preceding month’s 96.9 lakh and a similar decline from 96.1 lakh in same month last year. This led to December 2025 seeing 4.1% less domestic flyers (across all airlines) at 1.43 crore, compared to 1.49 crore in same month previous year.Overall at 16.7 crore, domestic air traffic in India last calendar year registered a 3.5% growth over 2024’s 16.1 crore. This despite the numerous challenges seen last year including the closure of 32 airports in north and central India during Operation Sindoor, AI 171 crash and then the IndiGo crisis. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) Tuesday released the domestic air traffic data for December 2025. Last calendar year saw IndiGo’s domestic share at 64%, followed by Air India Group at 27% and Akasa at 5.1%. Smaller airlines accounted for the remaining 3.9% share. Despite the crisis, IndiGo saw its domestic market share rise from 61.9% for CY 2024. Its domestic passenger carriage crossed the 10-crore mark for the first time last year at 10.7 crore, up from 9.99 crore in 2024. At 12% from previous month, the IndiGo crisis saw a significant decline in December 2025 domestic carriage. Being the peak holiday month, airlines see more passengers in December than November. In 2024, for instance, IndiGo had seen a 6% jump. Factoring in a same rise without the disruption, December 2025 could have been the first month when the airline’s domestic carriage crossed a crore.In sheer numbers, December 2025 saw IndiGo flying 11.7 lakh domestic passengers less than the previous month. Add a few lakhs to the decline for the spike that should have happened but didn’t. While the airline maintains its flights were disrupted between December 3 & 5, the cancellations lasted for at least 7-8 days more than that timeline.After the disruption, government cut IndiGo’s flights for this winter schedule. How long the airline takes to return to November 2025 remains to be seen as the exemption from stricter pilot duty rules for indigo ends on Feb 10.According to DGCA data, December 2025 saw Air India group top domestic on time performance at 66.3%, followed by IndiGo at 62.7% and then the rest.