Domestic flights in India

The domestic market is dominated by two groups. Shares below are from DGCA monthly data for mid-2026, as reported in the press.

Buying a domestic ticket is the same as anywhere: an aggregator to compare, the airline to book.

Allowances depend on the airline and the fare, and they are revised. These are the published standard rules for economy on domestic flights; always check your own booking.

For foreign nationals: the original passport is the only accepted photo ID on domestic flights. Photocopies, scans and foreign driving licences are not accepted. At the terminal door a CISF (airport security force) officer checks your passport against the ticket or boarding pass, on paper or on the phone; the same passport is checked again at security and at the gate.

Keep the passport and visa together for the whole trip: hotels register foreign guests by passport too, so a domestic flight is not the day to leave it in a safe.

DigiYatra is the government-backed system that lets passengers pass the terminal entry, security and boarding gate by face scan, with separate fast lanes at large airports. Enrolment is in the DigiYatra app and currently works through Aadhaar (the Indian national ID), so foreign passport holders cannot enrol yet.

Passport-based enrolment is on the way: according to press reports (September 2026), trials with e-passports for international departures are planned for October to December 2026 at Bengaluru, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kochi and Mumbai. Until it opens for domestic flights, use the regular lanes with your passport. The regular lane is slower at peak hours, which is one more reason to arrive on time.

The airport routine in India takes longer than the flight on short routes. Airlines recommend arriving two hours before a domestic departure.

Count door to door. A short flight still means a ride to an airport far from the centre, two hours before departure, the flight itself and the trip back into town. On routes like Delhi–Agra or Delhi–Jaipur a fast day train (Shatabdi, Vande Bharat) goes from station to station in the city centre and usually wins on time and money.

An overnight train in 2A (two-tier AC sleeper) replaces both a night in a hotel and half a day of travel, and the slow scroll of fields and stations at dawn is part of the country you came to see. Fly when the train takes a day or more (Delhi–Kochi, Delhi–Goa, Kolkata–Bengaluru), when the waitlist on the train is deep, or when you are short of days. Train classes, quotas and booking are covered in the transport guide.