Govt. Allows Domestic Airlines To Operate At 70% of Their Pre-COVID Capacity

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As the domestic passenger traffic in India continues to increase, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation is now allowing all domestic carriers to increase their operational capacity from the existing 60% to 70% of the pre-COVID level.

“Domestic operations recommenced with 30K passengers on 25 May & have reached 2.06 lakhs on 8 November,” Civil Aviation Minister, Hardeep Singh Puri said in a tweet.

Last week the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) had said that the Indian airlines can operate a maximum of 60% of their pre-COVID domestic passenger flights till February 24 next year due to the prevailing coronavirus situation.

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On 26th June, the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) had allowed the Indian airlines to operate with a maximum of 45 percent of their pre-COVID domestic flights.

The Govt had allowed airlines to operate domestic passenger flights from May 25, after a gap of two months because of the coronavirus-triggered lockdown in the country.

Initially, all the airlines were only allowed to operate with not more than 33 percent of their pre-COVID domestic flights.

Airline carriers are now expecting that the MoCA would further increase the cap on domestic flights so that they can soon reach their pre-COVID levels, according to reports.

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For example, full-service carrier Vistara is expecting to operate 100 percent of its pre-COVID domestic passenger flights by April next year, said its Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) Vinod Kannan on Wednesday.

Currently, Vistara is operating around 55 percent of its pre-COVID scheduled domestic passenger services.

Moroever, SpiceJet said it is operating 52 per cent of its pre-COVID domestic flights currently.

Scheduled international passenger flights continue to remain suspended in the country since March 23 due to the pandemic.

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However, special international flights have been operating under the Vande Bharat Mission since May and under bilateral air bubble pacts signed with various countries since July.

(With Inputs From PTI)


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Also Read: SpiceJet To Start Flights From Nashik To Delhi, Bengaluru And Hyderabad

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Manish Khandelwal
Manish Khandelwal

Manish Khandelwal, a travel-tech enthusiast with over a decade of experience in the travel industry. Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Travelobiz.com, he's passionate about writing.

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