Domestic Airlines Can Now Operate Upto 70% Of Capacity

Picture courtesy Twitter

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.

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.