Domestic Flight Tickets To Get Expensive As Govt Cuts Seat Capacity To 50%, Increase Minimum Fare From June 1

The Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) on Friday reduced the normal seating capacity in domestic flights from 80% to 50% starting from June 1.

Moreover, the fares of domestic flight tickets may get expensive as the aviation ministry has also raised the lower limit on fares by 13% to 16%.

“This decision has been taken because of the sudden surge in the number of active Covid-19 cases across the country, decrease in passenger traffic and passenger load factor (occupancy rate)”, said the Ministry of Civil Aviation in an order issued late on Friday said.

As per the latest order, the lower limit for flights under 40 minutes of duration will be increased from ₹2,300 to ₹2,600 — an increase of 13%.

Similarly, flights with a duration between 40 minutes and 60 minutes will have a lower limit of ₹3,300 instead of ₹2,900 now, the order said.

Here is the new slabs of minimum fare as per the duration of flights.

For domestic flights of duration between 60-90 minutes, the lower limit will go up from ₹3,500 to ₹4,000. The lower limit will go up from ₹4,100 to ₹4,700 for flights of the duration of 90-120 minutes, from ₹5,300 to ₹6,100 for flights of 120-150 minutes, from ₹6,400 to ₹7,400 for flights of 150-180 minutes and from ₹7,600 to 8,700 for flights of 180-210 minutes.

The aviation ministry has imposed lower and upper limits on domestic airfares based on flight duration when domestic flight operations resumed on 25th May 2020, after the complete suspension of passenger air travel for two months.

The aviation ministry had permitted the carriers to operate not more than 33% of their pre-COVID domestic services. The cap was gradually increased to 80% by December last year.

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