New Delhi: The Union Civil Aviation ministry on Wednesday allowed airlines to operate services at 70% of their capacity.
As of today, domestic airlines were operating flights at 60% of their capacity. But with COVID-19 cases decreasing across India, the government has been emboldened to ramp up operations.
“Domestic operations recommenced with 30K passengers on 25 May and have reached 2.06 lakhs on 8 Nov. Ministry of Civil Aviation is now allowing domestic carriers to increase their operations from existing 60% to 70% of the pre-Covid approved capacity,” Aviation minister Hardeep Singh Puri announced via Twitter.
Domestic operations recommenced with 30K passengers on 25 May & have reached 2.06 lakhs on 8 Nov 2020. @MoCA_GoI is now allowing domestic carriers to increase their operations from existing 60% to 70% of the pre-COVID approved capacity.
— Hardeep Singh Puri (@HardeepSPuri) November 11, 2020
Flights, which were grounded on March 23, resumed operations after two months in phases. Airlines were initially allowed to operate up to a third of their total capacity. As the situation improved, it was increased to 45% and then 60%.
Though air traffic has picked up since June, number of bookings in most flights are still low.
