Domestic air passenger traffic fell 8.03 per cent for the fifth straight month in September, to 40.18 lakh from 43.69 lakh in August.
Aviation Minister Ajit Singh had earlier said that economic slowdown has adversely affected passenger traffic growth in the past couple of months but it would rebound.
The trend started in May during which the traffic came down 0.87 per cent and stood at 54.48 lakh from 54.96 lakh in the corresponding month of 2011.
June had recorded a substantial fall of 3.84 per cent at 51.08 lakh from 53.12 lakh in the like month of 2011.
The civil aviation ministry data, however, showed the total passengers carried by all the domestic airlines in the January-September period grew by a marginal 0.90 per cent at 438.39 lakh passengers from 442.18 lakh during the corresponding month of 2011.
On a standalone basis,
IndiGo had the largest market share of 27.2 per cent, followed by
Air India, 19.3 per cent; Jet Airways, 18.1 per cent; SpiceJet, 18.5 per cent; Go Air, 7.6 per cent; Jetlite, 5.7 per cent and Kingfisher Airlines, 3.5 per cent.
Sectoral analysts said the negative growth rate was due to the seasonal factor.
"There is no reason for alarm. This is a lean period for air traveller not just this year but it happens every year," Amber Dubey, partner and head-aviation at global consultancy KPMG.
With inputs from IANS 
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