Domestic airlines will operate 44.3 per cent fewer flights at 12,983 departures a week in the winter schedule 2020-21 which runs from October 25 till March 27 next year. The new schedule has been approved at 60 per cent of the capacity that airlines were flying in the pre-Covid period. Accordingly, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has cleared a schedule for 12,983 weekly domestic flights covering 95 airports in winter 2020-21 - down 44.3% from 23,307 in winter 2019-20. Globally, airlines follow a winter and summer schedule.
As per the schedule released by the DGCA, SpiceJet will have 54.7 per cent fewer weekly departures during winter schedule 2020-21 at 1957 as against 4316 previously. Similarly, Air India will operate half of its flights at 1,126 weekly departures during winter schedule 2020-21 as against 2,254 weekly departures previously. GoAir will have 1203 weekly departures in the latest winter schedule as against 2308 weekly departures previously. Vistara will see a 38 per cent drop in weekly departures during the latest winter schedule at 852 as against 1376 previously. AirAsia will see a 34.2 per cent decline in weekly departures in the latest schedule at 885 (1345 weekly departures previously).
In comparison to last year’s winter schedule, when 23,307 weekly domestic services were approved by the DGCA, this year’s winter schedule has got just 55.7 per cent (12,983 flights) of those flights approved, according to the aviation regulator.
These 55.7 per cent flights will be operating from 95 Indian airports between October 25 and March 27, 2021, the DGCA said.
The domestic airlines will fly to 95 airports including six in Tamil Nadu like Salem, Tuticorin, Madurai and Chennai, four in Kerala including Cochin and Thiruvanthapuram and eight in Karnataka, including Vidyanagar, Hubli, Belgaum and Bengaluru.
India resumed scheduled domestic flights on May 25 after a gap of two months due to the coronavirus pandemic. At that time, airlines were permitted to operate just 33 per cent of their pre-Covid domestic flights. This figure was gradually increased in the later months.
