IATA: India domestic air traffic falls 8.3% in September

India's domestic air traffic fell 8.3% in September compared with a year earlier, measured by revenue passenger kilometres, the International Air Transport Association said in its October 30 release. The decline was the country's steepest this year on that measure. Available seat kilometres fell 7.9%, while the passenger load factor was 81%.

The figures describe the distance-weighted volume of travel and capacity, not an 8.3% fall in the number of people flying. India's result formed part of a wider contraction in domestic markets, even as international traffic returned to growth. IATA said its figures were provisional and included estimates where reporting was missing.

International traffic recovers, domestic travel weakens

IATA's September market analysis put the worldwide decline in revenue passenger kilometres at 0.5% from September 2025. Available seat kilometres decreased by 0.2%. The global load factor, the proportion of available capacity used, was 83.2%, down 0.3 percentage points. These are comparisons with the corresponding month last year, rather than changes from August.

International traffic increased 0.4% year on year, with capacity up 0.5% and a load factor of 83.6%. Domestic traffic fell 2.2%, while capacity declined 1.3%; its load factor was 82.5%. The split shows why the return of growth on international services did not produce growth for the global market as a whole.

The earlier August release, published on September 30, had reported a 0.8% annual fall in global traffic. International demand then declined 0.9%, while domestic demand was down 0.5%. September therefore brought a smaller annual contraction globally, but a sharper one in domestic markets. That comparison does not mean actual traffic volumes rose between the two months.

India's August domestic figures had shown a 7.5% annual drop in traffic and a 1.2% reduction in capacity. Its load factor stood at 78.7%, down 5.4 percentage points from a year earlier. Those previously published figures provide context for the latest release; they are not new September measurements or a forecast for the festive travel period.

The August report also recorded domestic growth in China, Brazil and Australia, alongside declines in Japan and the United States. That earlier pattern matters when interpreting a global total: a worldwide contraction can coexist with expanding individual markets. It cannot be read as evidence that every country, airline or route experienced the same change in demand.

September's international results remained uneven. European carriers recorded traffic growth of 1.8%, while North American carriers were flat. Middle Eastern carriers reported a 7.5% decline. Latin American and African airlines grew 8.2% and 8%, respectively. These figures refer to international operations by carriers in those regions, not the nationality of individual passengers.

For the year to September, the market analysis showed global traffic 0.3% above the comparable period of 2025, with capacity up 0.1%. International traffic over those nine months was up 0.3%, and domestic traffic was up 0.4%. It also projected scheduled seat growth of 0.6% in October and 1.5% in November. Those forward schedules are an outlook for capacity, not confirmed future passenger traffic or a promise that demand will recover.

What the traffic measures actually show

IATA's methodological explanation distinguishes revenue passenger kilometres from passenger numbers. Revenue passenger kilometres multiply paying passengers by the distance travelled. Passenger numbers count passengers without that distance weighting. Consequently, a change in the mix of shorter and longer journeys can affect the traffic measure differently from a simple passenger count.

Available seat kilometres apply the same distance principle to supply: available seats are multiplied by kilometres flown. Passenger load factor divides revenue passenger kilometres by available seat kilometres. Reading all three together is more informative than treating either demand or capacity alone as a measure of how full flights were across the network.

The methodology also distinguishes annual comparisons from analysis of seasonal patterns. Regular fluctuations in travel can require seasonal adjustment when comparing periods. September's year-on-year figures should therefore remain labelled as such. They do not establish a month-on-month movement, and the international and domestic tables should not be mistaken for a single uniform travel trend.