Summer travel: DGCA approves operation of 18843 flights per week

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), India’s civil aviation regulatory body, has approved 18843 flights per week for the summer schedule. These flights will be operational from 108 airports in India. The summer schedule began on the last Sunday of March, and is set to end on the last Sunday of October 2021.

The number of flights were capped due to COVID-19 pandemic, and the approved numbers have been decided keeping in mind that airlines are permitted to operate only 80 per cent of their pre-COVID flights.The Directorate General of Civil Aviation wrote on Twitter, "It may be noted that 18,843 departures per week have been finalised to/from 108 airports. Out of these 108 airports, Bareilly, Bilaspur, Kurnool and Rupasi are the new airports proposed by the scheduled airlines."
It further mentioned that the number of approved weekly flights for different airlines are IndiGo (8749), GoAir (1747) and SpiceJet (2854). DGCA has also approved Air India's 1683, Vistara's 1288 and AirAsia India's 1243 flights.

After being severely hit by the pandemic, domestic as well as international flights were grounded for months last year. Domestic passenger flight operations resumed on May 25 in 2020, nearly after two months of lockdown. Airlines started the operations with 33 per cent occupancy, which has now increased to 80 per cent.