Airlines will now be able to operate domestic flights at full capacity

After Corona's second wave, the government reduced capacity to 50 percent

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New Delhi: All the airlines in the country will be able to fly domestic flights to all the cities of the country from October 18 without any restriction on aircraft capacity, the Union Ministry of Civil Aviation announced on Tuesday in view of the growing demand for air travel.

All the airlines in the country have been operating their domestic flights with 85 per cent capacity of the aircraft since September 18, which was their pre-Covid capacity, the ministry said in a statement. Between September 12 and September 18, the planes of these companies flew with a capacity of 72.5 per cent.

Between July 5 and August 12, their capacity was 65 percent and between June 1 and July 5, these companies operated their aircraft with 50 percent capacity. On October 9, all the airlines of the country jointly flew 2340 domestic flights with 71.5 per cent of their total capacity before Covid.

The ministry said in a statement that it had decided to allow all airlines in the country to operate scheduled air operations from October 18 without limiting Kopin's capacity.

The order made it clear that the decision was taken after reviewing the increased demand for passengers and the current state of scheduled domestic operations. When the government approved the launch of domestic flights from May 25 last year after a two-month break, the government's aviation ministry allowed them to operate aircraft with only 33 per cent capacity.

However, by December 2020, the government had increased their capacity to 80 per cent and by June 1 this year, the companies were operating their domestic flights with 80 per cent capacity.

The second wave of Corona in March-April this year caused an uproar across the country which led the government to reduce the capacity of airlines from 80 per cent to 50 per cent, as the number of passengers had dropped drastically at that time.