Domestic carriers flew 4.5 per cent less passengers at 1.09 crore in April, compared to 1.15 crore passengers in the same period last year.
The Directorate-General of Civil Aviation, which released the data on Wednesday, said passenger load factor in April showed a decreasing trend as compared to the previous month on various sectors due to the end of the vacation period.
It is after over 50 months of double-digit growth that the domestic aviation industry has shown a drop in the number of passengers flown.
Incidentally in March this year the domestic industry reported a growth of just 0.4 per cent as compared to the same period previously. During April, IndiGo maintained the number 1 position among all domestic airlines having flown 54.81 lakh passengers, followed by Air India at 15.23 lakh, and SpiceJet (14.41 lakh).
