India allows domestic airlines to operate at 80% of pre-COVID capacity

In a relief for airlines, the central government has now permitted the domestic carriers to increase their operations to 80% of the pre-COVID-19 levels from existing 70%, with immediate effect.

The decision came after a sharp surge in the passenger load levels since the resumption of air travel in May. The civil aviation minister Hardeep Singh Puri in a tweet said, the domestic operations recommenced with 30,000 passengers on May 25 and have now touched a high of 2.52 lakhs on November 30.


Last month, the Centre had allowed domestic airlines to deploy up to 70 per cent of their flight capacity, up from 60 per cent capacity utilisation in the domestic sector allowed with effect from September 2.

In June, the capacity was raised to 45 per cent from an initial 33 per cent.

Passenger air services were suspended on March 25 due to the nationwide lockdown to check the spread of Covid-19, and domestic flights resumed in a phased manner from May 25.