‘Domestic air travel sees 19.4% YoY drop in June’
Special Correspondent
Panaji: Domestic air travel to the state has been affected with Goa not among the top 10 busiest domestic flight routes in the country, while on the other hand rail passenger traffic to the state has been on the surge.
The list of busiest domestic flight routes in India for June 2026 is dominated by major metro corridors, with Delhi-Mumbai leading the rankings, followed by routes including Bengaluru–Delhi, Mumbai–Bengaluru, Delhi–Hyderabad, Kolkata–Delhi and Delhi–Srinagar, among others.
The highest number of flights on an air route, per day, each way is 56 on Delhi to Mumbai route.
The recent domestic aviation traffic data from a private agency reveals that Goa’s domestic air passenger traffic declined by 19.4 per cent in June 2026 as compared to the same month previous year, with passenger numbers falling from 5,65,727 in June 2025 to 4,55,993 in June 2026.
The fall in air traffic has impacted Goa’s standing among the country’s busiest aviation routes.
As far as the top destination states in the country are concerned, Goa ranked ninth among them, recording one of the steepest year-on-year declines in domestic air travel.
In comparison, the state witnessed a significant rise in tourist arrivals by rail route during the first five months of 2026.
The state recorded 19.88 lakh tourist arrivals by rail between January 2026 and May 2026, reflecting a 6.8 per cent increase as compared to the corresponding period last year.
The figures indicate that rail connectivity continues to play an increasingly important role in bringing visitors to the state.
Goa’s aviation traffic had recorded a decline of nearly 27 per cent between January 2026 and April 2026, according to data released by the Ministry of Civil Aviation.
This MoCA data showed that total passenger traffic in Goa had dropped from 11.82 lakh passengers in January 2026 to 8.61 lakh passengers in April 2026, marking a decline of over 3.21 lakh travellers within the first three months of the year.
