Domestic air traffic now closer to pre-Covid-19 levels: Hardeep Singh Puri

Feb 20,2021

Civil aviation minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Saturday said domestic air traffic was inching closer to pre-Covid levels with 2,90,518 passengers travelling on 2,360 flights on Friday.

In a tweet, Puri said, "2,90,518 passengers on 2,360 flights on 19 Feb is within touching distance of Pre-COVID numbers & marks revival of the domestic sector. From transporting essential & medical supplies, to movement of vaccines, civil aviation sector plays a key role in efforts against COVID19."

At a meeting of the ministry's consultative committee on Thursday, Puri said domestic air traffic is increasing day-by-day and has now reached about 30,00,00 passengers daily.

He added with domestic air traffic expected to increase further in the summer, the government may remove the fare band besides lifting other restrictions.

The aviation industry was one of the severely affected sectors due to the Covid-19 lockdown last year. India's domestic passenger traffic slipped to a seven-year low in 2020 due to a complete pandemic-induced halt in air travel last summer for two months.

Commercial passenger flights resumed operations from May 25 with restricted capacity. There has been a month-on-month increase in the number of air passengers from October.

The number of fliers increased from over 5.2 million in October to over 6.3 million in November and over 7.3 million in December.

The government has been operating special international flights under their Vande Bharat Mission and air bubble agreements.