New Delhi: The domestic aviation sector shall reach pre-Covid numbers of daily flights and passengers only after the availability of vaccine in the country, experts opined while talking to ETV Bharat.
"Pre-Covid levels of domestic air passenger traffic will depend on when the capacity is back and how the vaccine plays out," said Ameya Joshi founder of aviation blog Network Thoughts.
"Currently, by passenger traffic we are at 50 per cent and we need to double the numbers. Ideally, it will take months or two after 100% operations are allowed to reach pre-Covid numbers," he added.
"Unless we have vaccine only then we can make our flights safer. It's not easy as making it like pre-Covid times because it's also about controlling the spread of virus," said Mark Martin, chief executive of aviation consultancy Martin Consultancy.
When he was asked that of the cap on domestic airfare is also affecting the number air of travellers, he said, "I don't think capping is the right thing to do and industry should decide that what airfare should be present because it the government is capping the airfares then it should also be covering the losses of the airline."
Travel agents told that demand for air travel has picked up if we compare it with July data. The government's decision to allow domestic airlines to deploy up to 70 per cent of their flight capacity from an earlier 60 per cent is also one of the reason, they added.
The Ministry of Civil Aviation on Wednesday increased the capacity limit and stated that the partial modification of the earlier order has been undertaken after review of the current status of scheduled domestic operations vis-a-vis passenger demand for air travel.
Aviation minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Wednesday said that domestic operations recommenced with 30,000 passengers on May 25 and have reached 2.06 lakh on November 8, 2020.
Passenger services were suspended on March 25 due to the nationwide log down to control the spread of Covid-19, though domestic air services resumed in a phased manner from May 25.
"It is my expectation that by the time we reached Diwali, and between Diwali and the end of the year, we should be looking at figures which resemble pre-Covid levels," Puri had said in a press conference on 29 October 2020.
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