Delhi airport defies regional turmoil: How IGIA recorded passenger growth in May 2026 despite West Asia conflict

Even as the West Asia war continued in May 2026, Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) continued its upward trajectory when compared to last May. Despite the ongoing conflict across West Asia, Delhi airport recorded higher passenger traffic in May 2026 compared to the same period last year, reinforcing its position as one of Asia’s most resilient aviation hubs. The performance stands in contrast to concerns that the conflict would significantly impact international travel demand and airline operations.

The airport recorded 71,66,161 passengers, a growth of 14.7% over the same month last year. Since April 2025, Indian aviation has been hit by one impact after another. Indian aviation had slowed down in May 2025 after the ghastly terrorist attack in Pahalgam in April and Operation Sindoor in May. Last May, many airports were shut down in the northern parts of the country.

While the domestic growth suffered last May, this year, the primary driver was domestic traffic. Delhi saw a growth of 18.6% in domestic passengers this May, while international growth was 4.1%. Sequentially, too, Delhi saw more passengers in May over April, the previous month. The United States of America and Iran have now agreed to a ceasefire to end the conflict in West Asia. But in May, when the war was ongoing, passengers navigated the challenges and continued with their holiday plans, a sign of resilience for both airlines and airports.

Highest ever domestic passengers

The domestic passengers for May were the highest ever recorded by the Delhi airport, which also saw record Air Traffic Movements at 42,477, a growth of 11% over the previous May. Irrespective of the international connectivity under pressure due to airspace closures, the airport said that it saw one in every four passengers transiting through it. Delhi handled 1.9 million transfer passengers in May 2026, 27% of the airport’s total traffic of 7.1 million in May. The share has increased from 20% in May 2025 to 27% this May. Sequentially, the growth has been high, with April 2026 seeing only 1.54 million transfer passengers, which was 23% of total traffic. The airport handles 56,000 transfer passengers daily on an average. It is connected to 161 destinations, according to the airport. This comprises 89 domestic and 72 international destinations.

The airport listed out routes such as Phuket-Delhi-London Heathrow and Kathmandu-Delhi-Tokyo as transfer routes where international passengers transit via Delhi. The most important factor behind Delhi’s resilience was the sheer size of India’s domestic aviation market. Unlike Gulf hubs such as Dubai, Doha or Abu Dhabi, where a substantial portion of traffic depends on international transit passengers, Delhi’s traffic mix is heavily supported by domestic demand. May is traditionally one of the busiest months for Indian aviation, driven by school vacations, weddings and leisure travel. Destinations such as Srinagar, Leh, Goa, Port Blair, Bengaluru, Mumbai and the Northeast continued to attract strong passenger volumes despite geopolitical developments thousands of kilometres away.

Airlines like Swiss, Lufthansa, and British Airways have added temporary capacity in Delhi, either in the form of new frequency or in the form of deployment of higher capacity aircraft, which played its part in ensuring that the international traffic also remains above the past year and grows over April.

Tail note

Delhi stands out in the GMR Airports portfolio for its diverse network, unlike Hyderabad, another GMR Airport, where there is high dependency on connectivity to the Gulf region. The impact of the West Asia war on Gulf traffic led to another month of negative growth in Hyderabad. May 2026 saw a drop of 8.6% in passenger traffic in Hyderabad, with Air Traffic Movements dropping 8.8% to 17,105.

The initial reaction to the West Asia war was to avoid travel, which was followed by only essential travel. By May, the war continued as another geopolitical issue, and carriers in the Middle East were also back to flying their schedules, albeit to a significant extent, if not fully. While Prime Minister Narendra Modi appealed for avoiding foreign holidays, passengers had already booked and were flying to summer getaways via major Indian hubs like Delhi.

The author, Ameya Joshi, is an aviation analyst.