India witnessed a 7% year-on-year increase in domestic passenger traffic in November 2025, totaling 15.2 million passengers. Emkay Global Financial Services reported that the rise was driven by festive season demand, although momentum tapered towards the end of the month as operations normalized by mid-December.
Daily trends in December 2025 suggest stagnant year-on-year growth, primarily due to operational disruptions faced by IndiGo in the initial half of the month. IndiGo’s market share dropped by 200 basis points month-on-month to 63.6% in November 2025, attributed to various disruptions including weather issues and software problems.
SpiceJet’s market share, on the other hand, increased by 110 basis points to 3.7%, supported by additional slots, fleet expansion, and increased available seat kilometers in the winter schedule. The Air India Group also saw a rise in its market share by 100 basis points to 26.7%.
Passenger load factor (PLF) showed improvement across major airlines in November 2025, with the Air India Group leading with a 10.2% monthly increase. IndiGo and SpiceJet recorded PLFs of 88.7% and 87.7% respectively, while Akasa achieved 93.8%.
Cancellations exhibited mixed trends during the month, with IndiGo reporting the highest rate at 1.57% (up from 0.48% month-on-month). On-time performance suffered due to weather disruptions, with IndiGo’s OTP dropping to 69% from 84.1%, the Air India Group’s to 69.1% from 79.3%, and SpiceJet recording the lowest OTP at 48.4%.
Anticipating a decline in aviation turbine fuel prices for January 2025 by 5-6% month-on-month from the current levels of Rs 99.7 per liter in Delhi, the firm predicted a decrease due to softening refining cracks and falling crude oil prices.
