New Delhi: The continued closure of Pakistan airspace since last April and the tense geopolitical situation in West Asia have reshaped international travel patterns from Delhi, with a sharp rise in traffic to Southeast Asia destinations. Meanwhile, the tighter US visa norms, airspace disruptions and Air India’s long-haul cuts have hit North America. Middle East traffic has also declined.Data shared by Delhi International Airport Ltd (DIAL) for April-Aug 2026 compared with the same period last year shows an 11.4% increase in travellers to and from Asia-Pacific, with numbers rising from 32.1 lakh to 35.7 lakh. Europe saw a marginal increase of 0.9%, from 19.6 lakh to 19.7 lakh, as airlines such as Lufthansa, SWISS and British Airways added India flights after reducing services to West Asia.Driven by growth in these two regions, IGIA’s overall international traffic rose 0.8%, from 85.5 lakh passengers in April-Aug 2025 to 86.2 lakh during the same period this year.North America recorded the sharpest decline, with passenger numbers falling 26.2%, from 7.5 lakh to 5.5 lakh. The drop has been attributed to stricter US visa norms, particularly for students and other visitor categories, along with disruptions caused by airspace closures and Air India’s reduction of long-haul services following the Ahmedabad crash.Traffic to Africa fell 10.9%, from 1.7 lakh to 1.5 lakh passengers, while Middle East traffic declined 4.1%, from 24.7 lakh to 23.7 lakh.“On an overall basis (domestic plus international), we expect our passenger footfalls to be at 8.2 crore in FY27, about 4% higher than the actual number of 7.9 crore in FY26. Foreign carriers have been adding flights, and new services are also being launched to destinations such as Mongolia by airlines that are just starting operations in Delhi. Overall, we expect an increase in numbers this fiscal despite continuing geopolitical challenges, higher jet fuel prices and other factors,” DIAL CEO Pradeep Panicker said.Meanwhile, the protocol for hub-and-spoke domestic-to-international passengers on Air India has been revised following a recent lapse in which three Italian nationals arrived from Amritsar and boarded a flight to Germany without clearing immigration.Under the revised system, Air India passengers connecting in Delhi to international flights operated by codeshare partner airlines will receive their onward boarding cards only in Delhi, complete immigration formalities and then travel onward. Such passengers will no longer receive boarding cards for both sectors at their point of origin.
