Why has air and rail travel stopped growing in India?

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Last month, the online brokerage firm Zerodha posted a graph on social media that showed domestic air travel in India had stopped growing. Over the past year, data from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation shows that the rolling 12-month total of domestic air passengers had remained flat over the past year.

Why do you think? pic.twitter.com/2aU7lnpBgi— Markets by Zerodha (@zerodhamarkets) October 7, 2026

Right below the post were a bunch of comments griping about high fares. If you travel by air, this is a trend that would have been difficult to miss. Domestic air fares, in fact, have risen so much that one enthusiastic litigant even filed a public interest litigation with the Supreme Court of India asking for price caps. The bench, however, simply dismissed the case with the brusque comment, “Don’t travel by air.”

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