Government has allowed airlines to increase the number of domestic passenger flights to 45% of their total capacity from the current cap of one-third of their total capacity, aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation said. Business Standard has reviewed the order.
A senior government official said that data had proved that air travel was the safest mode of transport due to its controlled access and complete traceability at departure, transit and arrival. Less than 1 per cent of people who have taken a flight since May 25 have been detected carrying the virus.
Also, only when a substantial portion of the domestic routes are functional, overseas flights can resume as international routes depend on traffic feed from domestic flights.
Airline executives said that demand was primarily unidirectional meaning the aircraft are flying on one route with little passengers.
This paper had earlier reported that data from travel firms show that over 90 per cent of flight bookings are for one-way trips and on non-metro routes, indicating little demand yet for business travel.
However, market leader IndiGo, is buoyant about the increase in flying capacity as it is seeing signs of growth in seat occupancy after resuming domestic operations recently, CEO Ronojoy Dutta recently said in an interview to Business Standard.
The booking trend was encouraging, with growth in load factors and unit revenue, Dutta said. “Future bookings are coming along nicely,” he added.
A cash balance of Rs 20,376 crore gives IndiGo the cushion to operate flights on one way with lesser load , but make money in the other direction where it gets a full flight.