New Delhi | Updated: July 7, 2026
More than 2.42 lakh passengers were affected by flight delays, cancellations, and denied boarding in May, forcing domestic airlines to spend nearly ₹6 crore on passenger facilitation and compensation.
According to the latest traffic data released by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation on Tuesday, 177,550 passengers were affected by flight delays of more than two hours during the month.
Another 63,723 passengers were impacted by flight cancellations, while 900 passengers faced denied boarding.
Airlines spent ₹424.15 lakh on facilitating passengers affected by delays, ₹70.32 lakh on cancellations, and ₹98.6 lakh on compensation and facilities for passengers who were denied boarding.
The total expenditure stood at ₹593.07 lakh, or about ₹5.93 crore.
DGCA data showed that 1.56 per cent of all scheduled domestic flights were delayed by more than two hours in May.
SpiceJet recorded the highest share of such delays at 15.75 per cent, followed by Fly91 at 5.85 per cent and Alliance Air at 2.09 per cent.
Air India Group recorded 1.85 percent delays of more than two hours, while Akasa Air reported 1.49 percent. IndiGo recorded 0.78 per cent and Star Air 0.7 per cent. IndiaOne Air did not report any flight delayed beyond two hours.
The report said reactionary delays accounted for 71 per cent of all delays, making them the biggest reason behind disruptions.
Air traffic control issues contributed 9 percent, operational reasons 6 percent, technical reasons 4 percent, passenger-related reasons 3 percent, airport constraints 3 percent, weather 2 percent, and miscellaneous factors 1 percent.
The overall cancellation rate among scheduled domestic airlines stood at 0.55 percent in May.
IndiaOne Air recorded the highest cancellation rate at 5.58 percent, followed by Alliance Air at 4.29 percent, SpiceJet at 4.04 percent, Fly91 at 1.74 percent, and Star Air at 0.83 percent.
Air India Group recorded a cancellation rate of 0.39 percent, IndiGo 0.36 percent, and Akasa Air 0.14 percent.
Technical reasons accounted for the highest share of cancellations, at 45.1 percent. Operational reasons accounted for 26.6 percent, weather 15.3 percent, miscellaneous reasons 11.6 percent, and commercial reasons 1.4 percent.
Despite the disruptions, domestic passenger traffic continued to grow.
Scheduled domestic airlines carried 153.9 lakh passengers in May.
During the January-May period, domestic airlines carried 729.4 lakh passengers, compared with 715.7 lakh passengers during the same period last year, registering an annual growth of 1.91 per cent.
Passenger traffic also increased by 9.49 percent compared to April.
IndiGo remained the market leader with a 64.9 percent domestic market share after carrying 99.91 lakh passengers in May.
Air India Group followed with a 25.6 per cent share and 39.33 lakh passengers. Akasa Air accounted for 5.8 per cent of the market.
SpiceJet had a 2.5 percent market share, followed by Star Air at 0.5 percent, Fly91 at 0.4 percent, Alliance Air at 0.3 percent, and IndiaOne Air at 0.01 percent.
IndiGo also topped the on-time performance rankings among major domestic airlines, recording 82.8 percent punctuality across the country’s 10 busiest airports.
Akasa Air followed with 78.3 percent on-time performance, Air India Group with 74.5 percent, Alliance Air with 70.5 percent, and SpiceJet with 26.5 percent.
Domestic airlines received 3,080 passenger complaints in May, equal to about two complaints for every 10,000 passengers carried.
Baggage-related issues accounted for the largest share of complaints at 28.7 per cent, followed by flight-related problems at 26.4 per cent and refund-related issues at 19 per cent.
Customer service complaints stood at 6.2 percent, catering at 1.6 percent, staff behavior at 1.1 percent, and disability-related issues at 0.6 percent.
The remaining 16.2 percent of complaints fell under other categories.
Of the total complaints received, 3,074 complaints, or 99.8 per cent, were resolved by the airlines.
