How many domestic air passengers does India have each month?

History

DGCA counts passengers carried by Indian scheduled domestic airlines in the month. One lakh is a hundred thousand. Numbers are as reported in the press; DGCA’s own report could not be opened.

The figures side by side

How we got this number

1. Take September 2026 from the DGCA's latest traffic report as reported by Business Today on 27 October 2026: 118.23 lakh passengers, and 1,223.53 lakh for January to September.
2. Check it against IANS (via Morung Express, 27 October 2026), which gives September as 1.18 crore passengers.
3. Take May to August 2026 from other press reports of the DGCA data, and convert crore and million into lakh: 1.20 crore is 120 lakh and 12.126 million is 121.26 lakh.

What this number does not tell you

• DGCA's own page loads its monthly report with a script and could not be read here, so every figure is DGCA data as reported by the press.
• Reports disagree on the base. Business Today says September fell 6.49% from 126.43 lakh in August, while Angel One (citing Business Standard) gives August 2026 as 12.126 million, 6.34% below 12.947 million a year earlier. The 6.49% may be a comparison with September 2025, not August, so this page does not use a month-on-month change.
• The July figure is a rounded 1.20 crore, and one report rounds June to crore while another gives 134.64 lakh. The chart uses the more exact 134.64 lakh for June.

Sources

1. DGCA, reported by Business Today, 27 October 2026Domestic air passenger traffic in India declined 6.49% month-on-month in September 2026, with scheduled airlines carrying 118.23 lakh passengers compared with 126.43 lakh in August, according to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation’s (DGCA) latest traffic report. Passenger traffic during January–September also slipped 0.82% year-on-year to 1,223.53 lakh from 1,233.70 lakh in the corresponding period last year.
2. DGCA, reported by IANS (Morung Express), 27 October 2026India's domestic aviation sector witnessed a further moderation in passenger demand in September, with domestic air passenger traffic falling 6.49 per cent to 1.18 crore passengers from the previous month, according to the latest data released by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).
3. DGCA, reported by IANS (Morung Express), IndiGo share, 27 October 2026IndiGo continued to dominate the domestic skies, carrying 77.30 lakh passengers during the month
4. DGCA, reported by Angel One (citing Business Standard), August 2026, 23 September 2026Domestic airlines carried 12.126 million passengers in August 2026, down 6.34% from the 12.947 million recorded last year.
5. DGCA, reported by PSU Watch (PTI), July 2026, 20 August 2026Domestic air passenger traffic slipped 4.80 percent to 1.20 crore in July from 1.26 crore recorded in the year-ago month, with all major Indian airlines seeing a drop in the load factor, DGCA data released on Thursday showed.
6. Ministry of Civil Aviation data, reported by IANS (Morung Express), June 2026, 21 July 2026However, passenger movement eased in June as domestic airlines flew 134.64 lakh passengers, down from 136.04 lakh in May.

Worked out by us: 120 (1.20 crore (PSU Watch, July 2026) multiplied by 100 lakh per crore); 121.26 (12.126 million (Angel One, August 2026) divided by 100,000 per lakh).

Questions people ask

How many domestic air passengers did India have in September 2026?

118.23 lakh, according to the DGCA traffic report as reported by Business Today. IANS gives the same as 1.18 crore.

How many passengers flew domestic from January to September 2026?

1,223.53 lakh, 0.82% lower than 1,233.70 lakh in the same period last year.

Which airline carries the most domestic passengers?

IndiGo, with 77.30 lakh passengers in September 2026 (DGCA, via IANS).

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This is a best guess, not an official statistic. We recheck it monthly. If you have a newer or better source, send it to us.