India, March 27 -- Indian airlines are set to operate 10% fewer domestic flights this summer compared to the previous year, according to a DGCA summer schedule published this week, as the Middle East war and rising operational costs force carriers to scale back capacity. Nine airlines will operate close to 23,000 weekly domestic flights during the summer schedule from March 29 to October 14, down from 25,610 weekly flights in the same period last year.

A senior DGCA official told PTI that domestic airlines would operate around 10% fewer flights in the 2026 summer schedule compared to 2025 numbers. The total count will be about 23,049 weekly flights, according to an analysis. The domestic carriers include Air India, Air India Express, Aka...