Govt allows airlines to fly 45 per cent of their pre-COVID domestic passenger flights

New Delhi, June 26: The government on Friday permitted Indian airlines to increase their number of domestic passenger flights to 45 per cent of their pre-COVID capacity, according to an official order.

The Ministry of Civil Aviation had restarted domestic passenger services from May 25, after a gap of two months due to the coronavirus-triggered lockdown. However, the airlines were allowed to operate only one-third of their pre-COVID capacity.

Modifying its previous order of May 21 where it had put the limit on the number of domestic flights, the ministry issued an order on Friday stating that, "One Third (1/3) capacity may be read as 45 per cent capacity."

Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Friday tweeted, "In one month since recommencement of calibrated domestic civil aviation operations in the country, our skies & airports have been busy. 18,92,581 passengers have flown so far on 21,316 flights across the country."

Scheduled international passenger flights continue to remain suspended in the country since March 23.