Indian domestic airlines paid nearly Rs 5.93 crore in compensation and facilities after flight disruptions affected over 2.42 lakh passengers in May, according to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) traffic data released on Tuesday. The expenditure included Rs 4.24 crore for passengers delayed by more than two hours, Rs 70.32 lakh for cancellations, and Rs 98.6 lakh for denied boarding.
Breakdown of Disruptions
The DGCA data showed that 1,77,550 passengers experienced flight delays exceeding two hours, 63,723 passengers faced cancellations, and 900 passengers were denied boarding. Overall, 1.56% of all scheduled domestic flights were delayed by over two hours in May. SpiceJet recorded the highest proportion of such delays at 15.75%, followed by Fly91 at 5.85%, Alliance Air at 2.09%, Air India Group at 1.85%, Akasa Air at 1.49%, IndiGo at 0.78%, and Star Air at 0.7%. Indiaone Air reported no flights delayed beyond two hours.
Root Causes of Delays and Cancellations
The report attributed 71% of delays to reactionary knock-on effects from previous flights. Air Traffic Control (ATC) issues accounted for 9%, operational reasons 6%, technical reasons 4%, passenger-related factors 3%, airport constraints 3%, weather 2%, and miscellaneous factors 1%. The overall cancellation rate stood at 0.55%. Indiaone Air had the highest cancellation rate at 5.58%, followed by Alliance Air (4.29%), SpiceJet (4.04%), Fly91 (1.74%), Star Air (0.83%), Air India Group (0.39%), IndiGo (0.36%), and Akasa Air (0.14%). Technical reasons drove 45.1% of cancellations, with operational (26.6%), weather (15.3%), miscellaneous (11.6%), and commercial (1.4%) factors contributing.
Passenger Traffic Growth
Despite disruptions, domestic air travel grew. Scheduled airlines carried 153.9 lakh passengers in May, up 9.49% from April. Over January-May 2026, 729.4 lakh passengers flew domestically, a 1.91% increase from 715.7 lakh in the same period of 2025. IndiGo maintained a dominant 64.9% market share, carrying 99.91 lakh passengers. Air India Group held 25.6% (39.33 lakh), Akasa Air 5.8%, SpiceJet 2.5%, Star Air 0.5%, Fly91 0.4%, Alliance Air 0.3%, and Indiaone Air 0.01%.
On-Time Performance and Complaints
IndiGo topped on-time performance (OTP) among major carriers at 82.8% across the 10 busiest airports. Akasa Air followed at 78.3%, Air India Group at 74.5%, Alliance Air at 70.5%, and SpiceJet at 26.5%. Airlines received 3,080 passenger complaints in May, or about two per 10,000 passengers. Baggage issues led at 28.7%, followed by flight problems (26.4%), refunds (19%), customer service (6.2%), catering (1.6%), staff behavior (1.1%), and disability (0.6%). The remaining 16.2% were other categories. Airlines resolved 99.8% of complaints (3,074).
