Govt Removes Capacity Restriction for Domestic Airlines

New Delhi: The Ministry of Civil Aviation on Tuesday has permitted Airline to operate domestic flights without any capacity restriction from October 18.

The resumption of domestic flights almost comes after one and half year following COVID-19 outbreak in 2020.

"It has been decided to restore the scheduled domestic air operation with effect from October 18, 2021, without any capacity restriction", the ministry said in its order on Tuesday.

"After a review of the current status of scheduled domestic operations viz-a-viz passenger demand for air travel,'' the order added.

In the month of December in 2020, the flight capacity was increased to 80 percent and so far, following the ministry's order, the carriers have been operating 85 per cent of their pre-COVID domestic services since September 18.

However, the restriction was imposed again and the flight operation was curtained to 50 percent on June 1, following the second wave of COVID-19 in April this year. The capacity was raised to 65 percent on July 25 and further increased to 72.5 percent on August 12. The government in September, this year, had increased the passenger capacity to 85 percent from 72.5 percent.

On May 25, last year, the domestic carriers were allowed to operate on 33 percent of their pre-pandemic domestic services.

However, the ministry suggested that the airline operators to ensure the necessary guidelines to contain the COVID-19 spread.

Meanwhile, according to several media reports, the Indian government has announced a10-day mandatory quarantine for the travelers visiting the country from the United Kingdom, irrespective of their vaccination status.

This comes at a time when the United Kingdom government has refrain from recognizing the India's COVID vaccine certificate.

All the passengers coming from United Kingdom will have to undergo a mandatory quarantine upon arrival in India. Apart from this, they will need to produce RT-PCR test result done within 72 hours before travel.

Also read:Byju's temporarily halts ads featuring SRK

Also watch: