By Sanjay Singh / AMN / NEW DELHI
Civil Aviation Ministry has decided to restore the scheduled domestic air operations from the 18th of this month without any capacity restriction.
The decision was taken after the review of the current status of scheduled domestic operators and passengers’ demand for air travel. The Ministry said, the airlines and airport operators shall however ensure that the guidelines to contain the spread of Covid 19 are strictly adhered to and Covid appropriate behavior is strictly enforced by them during the travel.
Covid-19 cases dropping, these restrictions have been lifted by the MoCA. As of now domestic carriers have been operating at 85 per cent of their pre-COVID domestic services levels since September 18 this year, according to an order issued by the MoCA.
The MoCA stated in its order that “it has been decided to restore the scheduled domestic air operations with effect from October 18, 2021, without any capacity restriction”.
The capacity cap stood at 72.5 per cent between August 12 and September 18 this year, 65 per cent between July 5 and August 12 this year and earlier between June 1 and July 5, the seating was capped at 50 per cent.
As on October 9, the Indian domestic carriers operated 2,340 domestic flights, which is 71.5 per cent of their total pre-COVID capacity.
The order noted that the decision was taken “after a review of the current status of scheduled domestic operations viz-a-viz passenger demand for air travel”.
After the government resumed scheduled domestic flights on May 25, 2020 after a two-month complete lock down, the MoCA had allowed the carriers to operate not more than 33 per cent of their pre-Covid services. The cap was gradually increased to 80 per cent by December 2020. The 80-per cent cap remained in force till June 1, 2021.