New Delhi, Aug. 28 -- India's domestic air passenger traffic declined 2.94% year-on-year in July to 12.6 million, marking the first drop since the pandemic, which coincided with the weeks that followed one of the country's deadliest air crashes in three decades. Indian airlines carried 12.9 million passengers on domestic routes in July last year. The last time where was a year-on-year drop for a month was in February 2022, when the Omicron variant of Covid-19 broke out and led to 1.69% contraction. Cumulative traffic for January to July, however, grew 5.9% year-on-year to 97.78 million, according to Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) data. Air India Group, which has the second-largest number of seats, registered the biggest drop, with traffic falling to 3.31 million passengers in July from 3.69 million in June. On June 12, Air India flight 171 crashed shortly after takeoff from Ahmedabad, leading to the deaths of 260 people. To be sure, the airline had slashed capacity by 5% due to increased checks on many of its planes in the aftermath of the incident. The decline reduced Air India's market share from 27.1% to 26.2%, while its load factor dropped from 81.5% to 78.6%, indicating reduced aircraft occupancy. The Tata Group-owned carrier had voluntarily reduced domestic capacity, separate from mandatory inspections ordered by aviation regulators following the Dreamliner crash. Following the accident, the DGCA ordered immediate checks on all Boeing 787 aircraft and conducted spot inspections at airports and airlines. However, the impact extended beyond Air India, with market leader IndiGo also registering a fall, flying 8.22 million passengers in July compared to 8.77 million in June....