Second wave ebbs: Government allows 15% more domestic flights – Times of India

NEW DELHI: Indian carriers can now operate 15% more domestic flights with the government raising the cap on the same from 50% of pre-Covid level to 65% from Monday.
During the pandemic, the aviation ministry has been regulating both domestic fares and capacity. It has tweaked both as per Covid situation.
Now that the second wave is ebbing and daily cases have fallen, the domestic capacity — which was reduced from 80% of pre-Covid to 50% on June 1 — has been increased.
The past few days have seen a constant increase in daily domestic flyers, after dipping in April and May.
For instance, July 3 saw almost 1.6 lakh domestic flyers — a figure that dipped to less than 50,000 on several days during peak second wave in May.
The order issued by ministry joint secretary S K Mishra says 65% capacity is applicable till this month-end.
The aviation ministry had last week sought views from airport operators and airlines on raising capacity. Most stakeholders, barring one or two airlines in financially critical condition, had sought being allowed to operate more domestic flights.
In a tweet, the ministry said: “Considering increasing demand for domestic air travel, the capacity of domestic civil aviation operations will be increased to 65% from 50% from (Monday) upto July 31, 2021, or until further orders.”

A senior airline official said: “The pandemic erupted early year and there is no sign of it going away completely in a hurry. It is best the state, which promises minimum government and maximum governance, leave aviation to market forces. Airlines should be free to deploy capacity as per demand depending on pandemic situation. Fuel prices are on fire and the fare caps also need to go now if airlines have to survive.”
The entire travel industry, including airlines and hotels, realise that their survival rests on domestic travellers as international travel could take a long time to open up both ways — Indian tourists being allowed in most countries and foreign tourists being allowed into India. This fact is recognised by government agencies too.
For instance, the Airports Economic Regulatory Authority’s consultation paper on Hyderabad Airport (HIAL) tariff says: “The authority has looked into the traffic trends at HIAL and observes that the traffic at Hyderabad Airport is dominated by domestic segment (about 81% of the total traffic over the last five years was domestic passengers). The authority is of the opinion that post-pandemic recovery of traffic at the Hyderabad Airport would be led by domestic segment and that it may recover at a faster growth rate than other major airports which tend to have a higher share of international traffic.”
While the norms for international travel will be set by individual countries differently for visitors from other countries depending on the pandemic situation in each place, the travel industry has been seeking uniform norms for domestic travel.
Industry leaders say RT-PCR testing requirement should be done away for domestic travel for the fully-vaccinated uniformly across the country.
“As of now, there are different rules for travelling from one Indian state to another. This causes confusion among travellers and many therefore decide to defer non-essential travel. There should be one rule — no RT-PCR testing needed if fully vaccinated — for domestic travel. This single step will have a multiplier effect on travel,” said a hotelier.