DGCA allows 22K flight departures for winter schedule

IndiGo – India’s largest airline by market share – will operate 10,243 flight departures, the highest by any airline, in the winter schedule

As Covid-19 cases continue to remain low, aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), in the winter schedule effective from October 31, 2021, till March 26, 2022, has finalised 22,287 departures from 108 airports. This is 4.4% less departures as compared to the winter schedule of the pre-pandemic year 2019-20, which had seen 23,307 departures.

Of the 108 airports that will see 22,287 flight departures, Sindhudurg and Kushinagar are the new airports proposed by the scheduled airlines for the winter schedule. (HT FILE)

The development comes after the ministry of civil aviation (MoCA) on October 12 allowed the scheduled domestic operations to operate without any capacity restrictions of passengers. All stakeholders had welcomed the government’s move and had termed it to be ‘crucial’ step ahead of the festive season.

Of the 108 airports, Sindhudurg and Kushinagar are the new airports proposed by the scheduled airlines.

IndiGo – India’s largest airline by market share – will operate 10,243 departures, the highest by any airline, in the winter schedule. The airline is followed by SpiceJet that will operate 2,995 departures, GoAir with 2,290 departures, Air India with 2,053 departures, Vistara with 1,675 departures and Air Asia with 1,393 departures. Small and regional connectivity airlines, too, have been finalised for operations.

Alliance Air is scheduled to have 911 departures in the winter schedule, followed by Trujet (450), Star Air (137), Fly Big (116) and Pawan Hans (24).

While Vistara saw the biggest increase, of 22%, among big carriers, the biggest decline in flights was seen for SpiceJet (31%) for the winter schedule.