A major step was taken by the aviation ministry today where the restrictions on domestic airlines were lifted so as to bring ease in the flight operations in the country. The decision came about in just three months after Jyotiraditya Scindia took charge as the Minister of Civil Aviation and lifts any restrictions that were imposed in the May of last year after the nationwide lockdown due to Covid-19.
An official government order was released as follows, “After review of the current status of scheduled domestic operations vis-à-vis passenger demand for air travel in terms of the purpose specified in the initial order no…It has been decided to restore the scheduled domestic air operations with effect from 18.10.2021 without any capacity restrictions.”
Escalation In Demand for Travel, Prices Remain High
As the festive season approaches there has been a steep rise in demand for domestic travel, which resulted in the lifting of the restrictions. The statistics of the domestic air passengers already intensified last week with over 300,000 passengers travelling more than once in the week and the numbers peaked up to around 420,000 passengers in a day.
With the beginning of Durga Puja and the festivals coming up the demands for flights have increased and the ticket prices are also to remain high regardless of the fact that the government decided to limit fare regulations to last-minute flight bookings. The fare restrictions were reduced last month from 30 days to 15 days till the day of the flight.
The 2-month lockdown due to covid last year impacted the airlines' operations and since the aviation industry resumed in the May of 2020, the government has been constantly fixing the upper limit and lower limit on the fares based upon the distance. The lower limits are capped so as to protect airlines from huge losses and upper limits are capped to prevent airlines from charging high prices for the seats when the demand is high.
