India aviation crisis: IndiGo in profit, all other companies in loss; What is really going wrong in the Indian aviation sector?

• Indigo’s flight service collapsed, passengers suffering
• Big increase in ticket price of other companies
• IndiGo alone has a 60 percent share in the aviation sector

India aviation crisis: There has been chaos at airports across the country since last week. IndiGo could not schedule its staff as per the new DGCA rules, which forced it to cancel several flights. This led to long queues at airports and inconvenienced passengers for hours. On the other hand, other airlines also hiked their ticket prices significantly as IndiGo’s flights started to be canceled at that time. Delhi to Mumbai fare hiked to ₹51,000. These airlines suddenly hiked their ticket prices when the flights were already fixed. This rent even reached up to 1 lakh rupees. The collapse of IndiGo’s flight service and simultaneous increase in ticket prices by other companies has also raised the question whether the airlines are losing money.

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Why is only IndiGo making profit?

According to a report by Airports Council International, between 2019 and 2024, domestic ticket fares increased by 43%. Inflation continues till 2025. Despite this, Air India’s loss in FY2025 was Rs 10,859 crore. Meanwhile, SpiceJet barely survived. But Akasa also failed to perform well. GoFirst and Jet Airways have already shut down. This means that only IndiGo airlines are currently profitable in India. Importantly, IndiGo alone has 60% market share in the aviation sector. are making profits, even though they have 60% market share. This shows that the Indian aviation sector is in a deep crisis.

Why are Indian airlines losing money?

ATF is the biggest villain

Aviation fuel in India is the most expensive in the world because it is exempt from GST and both the central and state governments levy heavy taxes. 40-50% of aircraft cost is fuel alone.

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Expensive leases and the dollar effect

Aircraft leasing has become more expensive than ever. Due to dollar payments, a weak rupee of ₹90 per dollar directly affects airlines’ pockets.

Expensive airport charges

Most low-cost airlines around the world fly from cheap and small airports. This reduces their costs. But almost all airports in India are big, expensive and high quality. This makes even the low-cost airlines cost more. As a result, even low-cost airlines operate at high cost, making it very difficult for them to make a profit.

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Market competition ceases

IndiGo’s monopoly has virtually eliminated competition in aviation. Tickets are expensive where there is no competition. But where there is competition, IndiGo keeps the fares so low that other companies run out of traffic.

According to experts, three major steps need to be taken to save India’s aviation industry:

Include ATF in GST
Develop secondary airports
Simplify the rules
Unless the government and airlines jointly implement major changes in the system, the new companies will not survive long and the existing airlines will not be able to make enough profits.