New Delhi: As the air passenger traffic in India rose for the fifth straight week after a significant drop in traffic due to lockdown and travel restrictions imposed by many states owing to the second wave of Covid-19, the Aviation secretary is likely to meet the authorities this week to review the cap on flight capacity.
"Domestic airlines were asked to submit their proposals on issues they are facing due to low passenger traffic. This week, top officials from the Ministry of Civil Aviation, Directorate General of Civil Aviation and Airports Authority of India are likely to discuss the capacity in Indian skies which are currently capped at the 50 per cent level, discounts for vaccinated passengers, etc.," said sources.
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 ramp-up after the resumption of airport operations since May 25 last year and reached 64 per cent of the previous year levels in February, declined by 28 per cent month-on-month in April to 1.79 lakh. From May 1 to May 16, there was a further dip of 56 per cent as compared to the average of April.
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From June 1, the government has reduced the capacity cap from 80% to 50% 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 a rise in ATF (aviation turbine fuel) prices.
Delhi airport authorities said that it has started witnessing growth in passenger numbers slowly but steadily post relaxation in norms. Mumbai, Patna, Bengaluru, Pune, Hyderabad, Leh, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Kolkata and Jammu and Kashmir have emerged as the top 10 destinations from Delhi during May and June, the airport stated.
In June, most of those who flew were in visiting family and friends category (48%), which was followed by vacation (25%) and business travellers (19%), added Delhi airport.
