Govt to soon allow domestic airlines to operate at 75 percent capacity

Civil Aviation Ministry will soon allow domestic airlines to operate at 75 per cent of pre-COVID levels. However, opening of domestic flights will start once vaccines are available with countries.

New Delhi: Union Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Thursday said the government will soon allow domestic airlines to increase their operating capacity to 75 per cent and that travel bubble arrangements are likely to continue till March-April 2021.

Presently, domestic airlines are operating at 65 per cent capacity.

"We will watch the situation for another week or 10 ten days. We will not hesitate to increase the operating capacity to 75 per if the figures continue to be healthy," Hardeep Singh said.

"Between Diwali and the end of the year, we will reach the pre-COVID level of 3,00,000. My expectation we will cross the pre-COVID level by the first quarter of next year," he added.

Speaking to media about travel bubble arrangements the minister said, "It is difficult to say as there is no other country which has completely opened its borders for all. It depends on the availability of a vaccine as countries will feel more confident once a vaccine is there."

Giving details on the air bubble arrangements with other countries, Air India CMD Rajiv Bansal said, "We currently have air bubble arrangements with 16 countries. We have a schedule which is open for booking for passengers. They also have a choice of carriers from other countries."

Hardeep Singh Puri said that under the Vande Bharat Mission about 20 lakh people were ferried in and out of the country. "Under the Lifeline Udan program, we brought in 1,928 tonnes of medical equipment and other medical supplies which were required to be imported from other countries. Domestic Lifeline Udan operated a total of 588 flights covering 5,45,685 km and ferried cargo of 940.29 tonnes," he said.

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Speaking on the government's decision for easing the criteria for potential bidders of Air India, Rajiv Bansal said, "We have given them some time so that the deal is beneficial for us as well."

Giving details on the condition of passengers injured during the Kozhikode plane crash, Air India's CMD said, two of the passengers are still undergoing treatment, one in Calicut and another in Coimbatore.

"One of the passengers is undergoing physiotherapy and one of the passengers is going under plastic surgery. These are post-accident corrective surgeries and corrective treatment," he added.

Rajiv Bansal said the insurance provider has paid all the injured passengers as well as the family members of the deceased, adding that all passengers were paid interim compensations.

The Union Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri further clarified that Air India did not lay off a single staff during COVID-19 pandemic.

"Look at what other airlines did. They have laid off hundreds of employees. Additionally, there have been salary cuts. But these are their commercial decisions. Air India did not lay off a single person," he said.

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