India allocates 25,309 weekly departures for summer schedule
Premium- India on Friday allocated 25,309 weekly departures for domestic flights during the upcoming summer schedule between 27 March and 29 October
NEW DELHI : India on Friday allocated 25,309 weekly departures for domestic flights during the upcoming summer schedule between 27 March and 29 October, which is about 10% higher than the 22,980 weekly departures recorded during the previous summer schedule.
In a statement, the civil aviation regulator, Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), said that 25,309 weekly departures to and from 112 airports during the summer schedule.
"Out of these 112 airports, Gondia, Ziro and Pondicherry are the new airports proposed by the scheduled airlines," it added.
Of the 25,309 weekly departures, IndiGo will operate the lion's share at 11,130 flights. The departures per week for other airlines follow -- SpiceJet (4,192), Go First (2,557), Air India (2,456), Vistara (1,741), AirAsia India (1,601), Alliance Air (982), TruJet (355), Fly Big (158), Star Air (137).
Among the airlines, IndiGo added most flights over the past year. The airline's weekly departures increased by 1,046 to 11,130 flights during
summer schedule 2022.
Incidentally, last year's summer schedule operated amidst a cap on domestic flight capacity.
Domestic flight operations were suspended for two months, between 25 March and 25 May 2020, in an effort by the government to contain the covid-19 pandemic.
Domestic flights operations resumed in May 2020 with restrictions on domestic capacity.
With such restrictions lifting last October, airlines now face no inhibitions to operate at maximum capacity.
A senior airline official said that travel could finally pick up during the summer though high oil prices remain an overhang on the airline sector.
"We expect the pent-up demand (for travel) to unravel in the coming months, especially during the summer holiday season," said a senior airline official, who spoke under the condition of anonymity.
"However, high oil prices are a big spoiler to the fact that life is slowly returning to normalcy after a couple of years of the pandemic," the person added.
On Friday, Brent crude traded as high as $116.76 a barrel, up 68% annually.
"One major concern that continues to be a drag on the aviation sector is the aviation turbine fuel (ATF) prices, which have seen a sharp increase of about 57% on a Y-o-Y basis till (early) March 2022. It is mainly attributed to an increase in crude oil prices," credit rating agency ICRA said in a recent report.
"This, coupled with relatively low-capacity utilisation of aircraft fleet, will continue to weigh on the financial performance of Indian carriers in FY2022," it added.
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