India Air Traffic by Season: January to December

India air traffic by season has a clear shape in the last two years of official data: a high, steady start in January, a climb to the biggest month of the first half in May when schools close, a long trough through the monsoon from June to September, and a second climb through the festive months of October and November. The domestic numbers from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) make the pattern concrete. Indian airlines carried 166.946 million domestic passengers in calendar 2025, up 3.48 per cent on 2024 (Business Standard, captured 2026-09-27), and May 2026 set the single-month record at 1,53,89,701 passengers (Outlook Traveller, captured 2026-09-27). This post puts both years side by side, month by month, and explains what moves each season.

A note on units: one lakh is 100,000 and one crore is 100 lakh (10 million). Everything below is in lakh so the months compare directly.

The year in one table

Domestic passengers carried by Indian airlines, in lakh. Figures are DGCA's monthly data as reported by the outlet named in the Sources section; where the report gave a rounded crore or million figure, the table shows "about". September and October 2025 are ICRA estimates, because the DGCA figures for those two months were not captured from a fetchable report.

Month	2025	2026
January	146.11	152.49
February	140.44	about 141
March	about 145	about 144
April	about 143	about 138
May	about 140.5	153.90
June	about 136	134.64
July	about 126	about 120
August	129.47	121.26
September	126.4 (ICRA estimate)	not yet published
October	142.8 (ICRA estimate)	not yet published
November	about 152	not yet published
December	about 143	not yet published
Full year	1,669.46	1,105.30 (January to August)

The monthly figures tie back to DGCA's own running totals. DGCA's January to August 2026 total is 1,105.30 lakh against 1,107.26 lakh for the same months of 2025 (The Tribune, captured 2026-09-27), and the eight 2026 months in the table add up to that total within rounding.

Two things stand out. The busiest months sit at opposite ends of the calendar, May and November, with December and January close behind. And the quietest stretch is not a single month but a run of four: June, July, August and September, the monsoon months.

January to March: a high, flat start

The year opens near its peak. January 2026 carried 152.49 lakh passengers, up 4.36 per cent on the 146.11 lakh of January 2025 (Business Standard, captured 2026-09-27).

February is shorter, and the count dips with it: 140.44 lakh in February 2025 (The Tribune, captured 2026-09-27) and about 141 lakh in February 2026. March recovers slightly. In 2026 traffic "inched up to 1.44 crore from 1.41 crore in February, but was lower than the 1.45 crore recorded in March 2025" (ETV Bharat, captured 2026-09-27).

This is also the back half of the fog season. DGCA set 10 December 2025 to 10 February 2026 as the official fog window for the season just gone (Travel Trade Journal, captured 2026-09-27). Fog is felt as delays and diversions at northern airports such as Delhi, yet January 2026 still carried more passengers than any month from February to April. On the monthly count, fog does not pull January down much; this post sticks to volume, not delay.

April and May: the school-holiday climb

April is the calm before the summer rush. Indian carriers flew 13.8 million domestic passengers in April 2026, against 14.3 million in April 2025 (Media India, captured 2026-09-27).

Then May arrives. May 2026 was the biggest month Indian aviation has recorded: 1,53,89,701 domestic passengers on 1,02,953 domestic flights, with passengers up 9.5 per cent and departures up 4.5 per cent on May 2025 (Outlook Traveller, captured 2026-09-27). The same report gives the reason in one line: "May is traditionally one of the busiest travel months in India, as schools are closed for summer vacations."

May 2025 went the other way. It carried 14.05 million passengers (Business Standard, captured 2026-09-27), below April, not above it. ICRA, the rating agency, listed cross-border escalations earlier in the year, which it said had led to flight cancellations, among the factors that held 2025 back (ICRA, captured 2026-09-27). A one-off event can flatten a seasonal peak, and in the two years of data here, 2025's May is the month where the usual climb did not show up.

June to September: the monsoon trough

From June the count falls and stays low for four months. June 2026 carried 134.64 lakh passengers (Indian Aviation News, captured 2026-09-27), against about 1.36 crore in June 2025 (DT Next, captured 2026-09-27). The same DT Next report puts the pattern plainly: "Generally, June, July and August are lean periods for airlines in terms of traffic."

July is lower still. Airlines carried around 1.20 crore passengers in July 2026, "compared with nearly 1.26 crore passengers in July last year", and the report attributed the dip to "a seasonal slowdown in air travel and calibrated capacity deployment by airlines" (BW Businessworld, captured 2026-09-27).

August 2026 came in at 121.26 lakh, down 6.34 per cent on the 129.47 lakh of August 2025 (Daily Excelsior, captured 2026-09-27). September 2025, the last monsoon month with a published estimate, was about 126.4 lakh (ICRA, captured 2026-09-27).

Put the peak and the trough side by side and the swing is large. May 2026 carried 153.90 lakh; July 2026 carried about 120 lakh. That is roughly 34 lakh fewer passengers in a single month, or about a fifth lower. The two reports above name the causes in general terms, a seasonal slowdown in travel and airlines trimming capacity to match it. The timing also matches the end of the summer school holidays that lift May.

ICRA also listed "the aircraft accident tragedy in June 2025 that increased travel hesitancy" among the factors that held 2025 back (ICRA, captured 2026-09-27).

October and November: the festive climb

October is where the year turns. ICRA estimated October 2025 at 142.8 lakh, "4.5% higher than 136.6 lakh in October 2024" and well above the September figure (ICRA, captured 2026-09-27). Ahead of Dussehra and Diwali, the DGCA asked airlines to add capacity: IndiGo planned about 730 additional flights across 42 sectors, Air India and Air India Express about 486 across 20 sectors, and SpiceJet 546 across 38 sectors (Business Today, captured 2026-09-27).

November is the second peak in this data, and in 2025 it was the top month. It carried about 1.52 crore passengers on 99,276 flights, which Outlook Traveller describes as the passenger record that May 2026 went on to beat (Outlook Traveller, captured 2026-09-27). DGCA's January to November 2025 total reached 1,526.35 lakh (The Tribune, captured 2026-09-27).

The timing of the festivals moves the festive peak around. In 2026, Diwali falls on 8 November (Business Today, captured 2026-09-27), so this year's festive rush centres on early November. The pattern holds from year to year; the exact month it lands in depends on the festival calendar.

December: fog, holidays and one year that broke the pattern

December brings the start of the winter holidays and the start of the fog window. In 2025 the month did not climb. Subtracting DGCA's January to November total of 1,526.35 lakh (The Tribune, captured 2026-09-27) from its full-year total of 1,669.46 lakh (Business Standard, captured 2026-09-27) leaves about 143 lakh for December, below November.

The reason was one airline. IndiGo, which carries most of India's domestic passengers, cancelled nearly 4,500 flights over ten days from 2 December 2025 (Wikipedia, captured 2026-09-27), a month in which it faced stricter norms for pilots' rest and duty periods (Business Standard, captured 2026-09-27). Its market share fell to 59.6 per cent in December from 63.6 per cent in November (Business Standard, captured 2026-09-27). Even so, the full year ended at 166.946 million passengers (Business Standard, captured 2026-09-27).

The season sets the baseline; an event on top of it can move a single month well away from where the season alone would put it.

How to read these numbers

A few points keep the table honest:

• These are passengers, not flights. DGCA's headline figure counts domestic passengers carried by scheduled Indian airlines. The number of flights moves more slowly; in May 2026 departures grew 4.5 per cent while passengers grew 9.5 per cent (Outlook Traveller, captured 2026-09-27), which means fuller planes, not just more of them.
• Estimates are labelled. The September and October 2025 figures are ICRA estimates, not DGCA's final count, and they can differ slightly from what DGCA later reports.
• All-India totals hide the map. The seasonal swing is not the same at every airport. The India airports directory is a starting point for looking up the airports on your own trip.

How TrackMyWings helps

TrackMyWings™ is a live flight-tracking platform in development, India-first in its go-to-market. A private Android beta has been running on the Play internal testing track since 2026-08-24, and public launch has no fixed date. A live map and gate and status alerts are among the features planned for launch, so that on a busy May morning or a festive Friday evening you will be able to see how your flight is actually doing. Until then, the airport pages for Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru are a place to start in the directory.

Questions people ask

What is the busiest month for domestic flights in India? May 2026 holds the record, with 1,53,89,701 domestic passengers. In 2025 the busiest month was November, at about 1.52 crore. School holidays drive May; the festive season drives October and November.

What is the quietest month to fly in India? The monsoon months. June, July, August and September are the lean stretch, and July 2026, at about 1.20 crore passengers, was the lowest month of 2026 so far.

Does fog reduce the number of people flying in winter? Not much in the monthly totals. January 2026 sat inside the fog window and still carried 152.49 lakh passengers, more than any month from February to April. Fog is felt mainly as delays and diversions at northern airports.

Why did December 2025 not follow the usual pattern? Mass cancellations at IndiGo in the first half of December took a large number of flights out of the schedule, and the month came in below November.

Sources

• Business Standard (PTI), "Domestic air passenger traffic rises 4.36% to 15.25 million in Jan: DGCA," https://www.business-standard.com/industry/aviation/air-passenger-traffic-grows-4-36-pc-152-49-lakh-in-january-126022800669_1.html, captured 2026-09-27
• The Tribune, "At 11% growth, domestic air passenger traffic touches 140.44 lakh in February," https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/business/at-11-growth-domestic-air-passenger-traffic-touches-140-44-lakh-in-february/, captured 2026-09-27
• ETV Bharat (PTI), "Domestic air traffic rises to 4.37 crore in March quarter," https://www.etvbharat.com/en/bharat/domestic-air-traffic-rises-to-4-dot-37-crore-in-march-quarter-flight-delays-hit-1-dot-21-lakh-passengers-last-month-enn26042906546, captured 2026-09-27
• Media India, "India's domestic air traffic drops as April passenger numbers decline: DGCA," https://mediaindia.eu/aviation/indias-domestic-air-traffic-drops-as-april-passenger-numbers-decline-dgca/, captured 2026-09-27
• Business Standard (PTI), "Domestic air traffic rises 1.89% to 14.05 million in May, says DGCA," https://www.business-standard.com/industry/aviation/domestic-air-traffic-rises-1-89-to-14-05-million-in-may-says-dgca-125062401423_1.html, captured 2026-09-27
• Outlook Traveller, "Indian Aviation Records Best-Ever May As Domestic Passenger Traffic Hits Record High," https://www.outlooktraveller.com/News/indian-aviation-records-best-ever-may-as-domestic-passenger-traffic-hits-record-high, captured 2026-09-27
• Indian Aviation News, "Domestic Air Passenger Traffic Rises 1.44% in H1 2026," https://www.indianaviationnews.net/home/2026/07/domestic-air-passenger-traffic-rises-1-44-in-h1-2026-indigo-strengthens-market-lead.html, captured 2026-09-27
• DT Next (PTI), June 2026 DGCA traffic report, https://www.dtnext.in/news/business/domestic-air-traffic-skids-to-12-in-june-shows-dgca-report, captured 2026-09-27
• BW Businessworld, July 2026 DGCA traffic report, https://www.businessworld.in/article/domestic-air-traffic-slips-4-8-in-july-indigo-leads-with-67-4-share-620151, captured 2026-09-27
• Daily Excelsior (PTI), "Domestic air passenger traffic falls 6.34 pc to 121.26 lakh in August: DGCA," https://www.dailyexcelsior.com/domestic-air-passenger-traffic-falls-6-34-pc-to-121-26-lakh-in-august-dgca/, captured 2026-09-27
• The Tribune (ANI), "India domestic air passenger traffic declines marginally in Jan-Aug 2026 (YoY): DGCA," https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/business/india-domestic-air-passenger-traffic-declines-marginally-in-jan-aug-2026-yoy-dgca, captured 2026-09-27
• ICRA, "Indian Aviation Industry: Domestic passenger traffic increased by 5% YoY in October 2025" (PDF), https://www.icra.in/Rating/DownloadResearchSpecialCommentReport?id=6626, captured 2026-09-27
• Business Today, DGCA asks airlines to add festive flights, https://www.businesstoday.in/india/story/dgca-asks-airlines-to-add-1700-flights-across-india-to-curb-diwali-airfare-spikes-496858-2025-10-05, captured 2026-09-27
• Business Today, festive travel and the Diwali weekend, https://www.businesstoday.in/latest/economy/story/festive-rush-flight-fares-soar-for-domestic-routes-on-diwali-weekend-555432-2026-09-14, captured 2026-09-27
• The Tribune, November 2025 DGCA data, https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/india/1-56-lakh-delayed-1-12-lakh-hit-by-flight-cancellations-in-november-dgca-data/, captured 2026-09-27
• Business Standard, "Domestic air traffic hits 166.9 million in 2025; IndiGo share dips in Dec," https://www.business-standard.com/india-news/domestic-air-traffic-hits-166-9-million-in-2025-indigo-share-dips-in-dec-126020400030_1.html, captured 2026-09-27
• Travel Trade Journal, "Air India activates fog-season plan as DGCA sets Dec 10 to Feb 10 low-visibility window," https://traveltradejournal.com/air-india-activates-fog-season-plan-as-dgca-sets-dec-10-feb-10-low-visibility-window/, captured 2026-09-27
• Wikipedia, "2025 IndiGo scheduling crisis," https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_IndiGo_scheduling_crisis, captured 2026-09-27