The Ministry of Civil Aviation has relaxed the capacity and fare restrictions in place for domestic flights in line with the growing air traffic and the upcoming onset of the festivals season. Airlines will now be able to schedule up to 85 per cent of their pre-Covid flights, compared with the 72.5 per cent capacity they were able to deploy till Saturday. In addition to this, the applicability period for the fare ceiling and floor imposed by the government, has been reduced to a 15-day rolling period, compared with a 30-day rolling period earlier.
Since the reopening of domestic aviation in May 2020, after the initial two-month lockdown, the Centre has regulated the number of flights airlines can operate on domestic routes to prevent an overburden on the local infrastructure involved with healthcare activities. Initially, the cap on the number of flights was 33 per cent of the pre-Covid schedule, and this was gradually increased to 80 per cent till the second wave of Covid19 hit. After that, the government had reduced it to 50 per cent and then relaxed it to 60 per cent, 72.5 per cent, and now 85 per cent.