The Union government has increased the cap on the number of domestic flights that airlines in India can operate from 70 per cent to 80 per cent of their pre-Covid levels.
This was announced by Union civil aviation minister, Hardeep Singh Puri on Thursday.
“Domestic operations recommenced with 30,000 passengers on May 25 and have now touched a high of 2.52 lakhs on November 30, 2020,” Puri tweeted.
“The ministry of civil aviation is now allowing domestic carriers to increase their operations from existing 70% to 80% of the pre-Covid approved capacity,” a report quoted the tweet.
Also read: Domestic flights operations can resume but states have to agree: Aviation minister
The government had permitted scheduled domestic passenger flights to resume their services from May 25 as the aviation sector was incurring huge losses due to the Covid-19 triggered nationwide lockdown.
All domestic flights had been suspended for two months following the lockdown that began on March 25.
However, the airlines were allowed to operate only with 33 per cent of their pre-COVID domestic flights.
The cap on domestic flights was increased to 45 per cent on June 26 and to 60 per cent on September 2.
However, several states recording a high Covid-19 caseload had expressed serious concern over the centre’s decision to resume domestic flight services in the country.