Govt allows domestic airlines to operate at 65 per cent passenger capacity

The government has allowed domestic airlines to operate at 65 per cent of their pre-COVID capacity, according to an official order.

New Delhi: The union government on Monday allowed domestic airlines to operate at 65 per cent of their pre-COVID capacity, according to an official order.

"After the review of the current status of scheduled domestic operations viz-a-viz pessenger demand for air travel in terms of the purpose specified in previous order 01/2020 dated 25.05.2020... 50% capacity may be read as 65% capacity," the order dated July 5 stated.

"This order shall take effect from the date of issue of this order and shall be applicable up to 31.07.2021 or until further order, whichever is earlier," it added.

Government sources said that the decision has been taken after a review of the current status of domestic flights operations as compared to the demand for air travel. Last week, domestic airlines were asked to submit their proposals on issues they are facing due to low passenger traffic.

According to the Ministry of Civil Aviation data, over 1,58,623 passengers took 1,436 flights across the country on July 3.

The domestic passenger traffic, which witnessed a steady rise after resumption of airport operations since May 25 last year and reached 64 per cent of the previous year levels in February but it declined by 28 per cent month-on-month in April to 1.79 lakh. From May 1to May 16, there was a further dip of 56 per cent as compared to the average of April.

On June 1, the government had decided to reduce the capacity cap from 80 per cent to 50 per cent of the capacity of the pre-Covid level and the upper cap on airfares has also gone up by around 14 per cent due to rise in ATF (aviation turbine fuel) prices.