Domestic flights can now operate at 80% of pre-Covid capacity: Aviation Ministry

More domestic passengers will be able to fly at a time, as the civil aviation ministry has increased the cap on the number of domestic flights permitted to operate

More domestic passengers will be able to fly at a time, as the civil aviation ministry has increased the cap on the number of domestic flights permitted to operate from 70% to 80% of their pre-Covid levels on Thursday.

Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) had resumed commercial domestic services on May 25. (HT File)

Civil aviation minister Hardip Singh Puri’s tweet read, “Domestic operations recommenced with 30K passengers on 25 May & have now touched a high of 2.52 lakhs on 30 Nov 2020. Ministry of Civil Aviation is now allowing domestic carriers to increase their operations from the existing 70% to 80% of pre-Covid approved capacity.”

Puri had in early November allowed Indian airlines to operate up to 70% of their pre-Covid domestic passenger flights due to the prevailing demand amid the coronavirus situation.

Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) had resumed commercial domestic services on (after completely shut down for two months due to nationwide lockdown) May 25.

However, as a precautionary measure, airlines were allowed to operate a total of 33% of their pre-Covid domestic flights. The cap was however increased to 45% on June 26 and 60% on September 2.