Indian airlines to operate 44% fewer domestic flights than pre-COVID-19 times this winter

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Sunday, October 25 has approved 44 per cent fewer departures in the winter schedule 2020-21 as compared to the previous year amid the COVID-19 pandemic. In a statement, DGCA approved 12,983 domestic flights every week for the winter schedule that comes into effect on Sunday and ends on March 27, 2021. However, just last year, the aviation regulator had approved over 23,300 weekly domestic flights.

IndiGo, which is the largest Indian airline, will operate 6,006 domestic flights every week this winter. Meanwhile, for SpiceJet and GoAir, that have 1,957 weekly domestic flights, DGCA has only approved 1,203 of them. Presently, with the COVID-19 restrictions, airlines in India are only allowed to operate up to 60 per cent of the actual flights.

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55.7% flights will be working from 95 airports

Comparing the winter schedule of 2020-21 with 2019-20, the aviation regulator noted that this year has only got 55.7 per cent of the weekly domestic flights approved last year, that was, 23,307. DGCA said on Sunday that these flights would run from the 95 Indian airports between October 25 and March 27, next year. India had resumed the scheduled domestic flights only on May 25 after being shut for nearly two months in the wake of the global health crisis that took a drastic toll on the tourism industry. At that time, the aviation regulator had only permitted the operation of 33 per cent of their pre-COVID-19 flights. This figured, gradually increased through the weeks and has now reached 55.7 per cent. 

These 55.7 per cent flights will be operating from 95 Indian airports between October 25 and March 27, 2021, the DGCA said.

Read - DGCA Approves 12,983 Weekly Domestic Flights In Winter Schedule

Meanwhile, earlier this week, Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Thursday, October 22 said that India decided to limit the foreign carriers’ non-scheduled cargo flights to the major cities only to provide equal opportunity to domestic airlines at a time when COVID-19 pandemic had taken a toll ion the aviation sector. On September 18, DGCA had said that the foreign carriers can only operate their unscheduled cargo flights to and from only six major cities including Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad.

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(With PTI inputs)

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