SpiceJet’s market share falls to 0.6%, slips below Star Air for first time | What went wrong

Cash-strapped SpiceJet’s domestic passenger market share fell to 0.6% in September, slipping below regional carrier Star Air’s 0.7% for the first time ever, according to data released by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Tuesday.

SpiceJet carried just 730,000 passengers during the month, down sharply from 5.92 million in January. Also, its market share declined steadily since the beginning of the year, falling from 3.9% in January and February to 3.8% in March and 3.4% in April, the data further showed

The airline’s market share dropped to 2.5% in May, 1.9% in June, 1.6% in July and 1.2% in August before reaching 0.6% in September.

Passenger numbers show a similar trend.

It carried 5.55 million passengers in February and 5.41 million in March, before the number declined to 4.74 million in April and 3.86 million in May. The airline carried 2.63 million passengers in June, 1.87 million in July and 1.4 million in August.

On the other hand, Star Air’s market share recovered from 0.5% in February and March to 0.6% in April and May. It rose to 0.7% in June and remained at that level through September, putting the regional carrier ahead of SpiceJet for the first time ever.

Domestic air traffic dropped 6.5% to little over 1.18 crore in September compared to the year-ago period, according to the latest official data.

The market share of IndiGo rose to 65.4% in September from 65% in August, while Akasa Air registered a marginal rise in its market share to 5.6% from 5.5% during the period, as per DGCA data.

Alliance Air's share slipped to 0.4% in September from 0.5% in August, the data showed.

“Passengers carried by domestic airlines during January - September 2026 were 1,223.53 lakhs as against 1,233.70 lakhs during the corresponding period of the previous year, thereby registering an annual growth of -0.82% and monthly growth of -6.49%,” DGCA said in its monthly report for September.

Compared with August, domestic air traffic declined by around 2.5% in September.

In terms of On Time Performance (OTP) last month, IndiGo topped the list at 91.1%, followed by Akasa Air at 90.8% and Air India Group at 81.7%.

The On Time Performance (OTP) of Alliance Air and SpiceJet stood at 75% and 16.6%, respectively.

DGCA computes OTPs for airlines at 10 major airports -- Bangalore, Delhi, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Cochin, Guwahati and Lucknow.

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