Weekly domestic flights in India to operate at 55.7 per cent capacity i.e. 12,983 flights per week from October 25, 2020, to March 27, 2021. By Tanvi Jain
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The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has recently confirmed of approving as many as 12,983 weekly domestic flights for the winter season beginning October 25, 2020, to March 27, 2021.
The three airline companies — IndiGo, GoAir and SpiceJet, will reportedly be operating 42, 48 and 55 per cent of last year’s numbers of 10,310, 2,308 and 4,316, respectively. Meanwhile, Air India will operate 50 per cent of last year’s flights i.e, from 2,254 flights last year to 1,126 this year.
The DGCA as quoted by various media houses had said on Sunday that, “It has approved 6,006 weekly domestic flights of IndiGo for this year’s winter schedule. SpiceJet and GoAir have got 1,957 and 1,203 weekly domestic flights approved.”
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As of now, airlines in India are allowed to operate at just 60 per cent of the pre-COVID-19 number of domestic flights. Therefore, compared to the last year’s winter schedule of 23,307 weekly flights, this year only 55.7 per cent i.e. 12,983 will be operating from 95 Indian airports.
However, the numbers are still better than May 2020 when the airlines had resumed services for the first time since the announcement of nationwide lockdown in March. At that time only 33 per cent of pre-COVID-19 domestic flights were allowed to function.
Furthermore reports suggest that the cap might soon be raised to 75 per cent as well with improving conditions of the pandemic.
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“With 1,50,40,272 passengers since operations recommended on 25 May, domestic civil aviation operations continue on a steady growth trajectory. 1,60,418 passengers, 1589 flights, total flight movements 3176, footfalls at airports 3,19,875 (On 25th October 2020),” Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said in a tweet.
Moreover, the Government’s ongoing Vande Bharat Mission is all set to enter its seventh phase on October 29. “Phase-7 of Vande Bharat Mission begins from 29 Oct. More destinations, flights & bubble arrangements. International travel of more than 2.7 million people facilitated until now,” Puri added.
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