NEW DELHI: The US-Iran war’s impact on international air travel globally has, from an Indian perspective, hit homegrown carriers harder than foreign ones.While people flying in and out of India fell 10.5% to 1.7 crore during April-June, the traditional peak summer quarter, Indian carriers saw a sharp 26% decline in their international carriage while foreign players registered an increase, according to DGCA data released Thursday.Dubai-based mega carrier Emirates benefited from UAE severely limiting foreign airlines’ flights for a prolonged period in that quarter and saw its carriage to and from India increase 7% to 14.8 lakh from 13.8 lakh in the corresponding period last year. Neighbouring Abu Dhabi-based Etihad’s India carriage declined only by 1,939 passengers from last April-June’s figure of 8.5 lakh.The conflict was yet another blow to Indian carriers that have been reeling under the impact of Pakistan airspace closure since last April which has impacted flights between north India, with Delhi the biggest hub for Air India and IndiGo, and the West.
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Air India Group (AI and AI Express) saw its international carriage drop 35% due to reduction in overseas fli-ghts since the air crash in Ahmedabad in June 2025. IndiGo saw international carriage drop 15.4% to 33.4 lakh from 39.5 lakh in April-June 2025.On the other hand, with no Pakistan hurdle and spare capacity as their West Asia operations have been curtailed by the war, some western carriers, led by Lufthansa, SWISS and British Airways, have increased their India flights. Lufthansa flew 3.7 lakh passengers in and out of India this April-June, as opposed to 3.5 lakh a year ago. British Airways, which added flights after Lufthansa, managed to avoid a big decline in India carriage by flying over 2.9 lakh people as opposed to about 3.1 lakh in April-June 2025.
