India allows all domestic flights to deploy full pre-Covid flight capacity from Oct 18

New Delhi: The Ministry of Civil Aviation has allowed the airlines to deploy full pre-Covid flight capacity in the domestic sector from October 18.

The capacity of airlines will be raised to 100 per cent from 85 per cent as per the order on Tuesday. the Civil Aviation Ministry which had limited passenger capacity to 65 per cent in July later allowed to raise it up to 72.5 per cent in August and 85 per cent on September 18, 2021,

Passenger air services were suspended on March 25, 2020, due to the nationwide lockdown to check the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic. The sector was reopened on May 25, 2020, with a limited capacity of 33 per cent. Since then, the operational capacity has been decided in consonance with the prevailing Covid situation.

Tuesday's order by the Ministry of Civil Aviation said that it has decided to restore scheduled domestic operations with effect from October 18, 2021, without any capacity restriction.

The decision was taken after a review of the current status of scheduled domestic operations vis-a-vis passenger demand for air travel in terms of the purpose The Ministry's order added.