India reaches One crore Passengers in Domestic Flights

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4 years ago

Airlines have been allowed to resume on-board meal services, pre-covid baggage rules in the last few months

From a complete shutdown of international and domestic flights in March and April, India has come a long way achieving the one crore passenger mark in the domestic sector. Vande Bharat Mission (VBM), which started in May, facilitated repatriation and outbound travel of nearly 18 lakh citizens.

In this period of time, several major relaxations have been provided to the airlines to boost domestic and international traffic.

Vande Bharat Mission Flights

Vande Bharat Mission (VBM) Flights were initiated by the Government for the repatriation of Indian citizens from different countries. When it was initiated in May, Vande Bharat Mission was being conducted only by Air India. During the third phase of the VBM, the Centre allowed private airlines to participate in the mission. The seventh phase of VBM will begin in October.

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Airports have become increasingly busy Image Courtesy Informed Aviator

people in the airpiort — Airports have become increasingly busy Image Courtesy Informed Aviator

Relaxations

Some of the relaxations which have paved the way for this increase in passenger confidence are as below:-

Baggage Rules

Airlines are now allowed to implement their own check-in baggage policies instead of one check-in bag of up to 20 kg per passenger — a rule that was put in place when domestic flights commenced on 25 May 20.

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On-Board Meal Services

In August, the government allowed airlines to serve pre-packed meals, snacks, beverages on domestic flights, and hot meals on international flights. No meals were allowed on domestic flights in the initial months. International flights were allowed to serve snacks, and pre-packed cold meals.

Capacity Building and Recovery

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It is felt that these relaxations will come as a relief and attract more passengers.

Domestic passenger flights are now operating at 60 % of pre-Covid capacity. When domestic services resumed on 25 May 20, after a gap of two months, they were not allowed to operate more than 33 % of their capacity. This was increased to 60 % in June. Several states had initially put a cap on the number of flights departing or arriving. In a staggered manner, these restrictions have been relaxed leading to an increase in domestic traffic.

International air traffic also got a shot in the arm after India started signing air bubbles with specific countries allowing both-way traffic. At present, India has air bubbles with 14 countries.

The domestic sector hopes to reach its pre-Covid capacity before the end of the year.

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