India hikes domestic flight capacity on rising demand

India has increased domestic passenger flight capacity by 12.5 percentage points as air travel demand picked up after lockdowns eased in the country.

The state-controlled Airports Authority of India said airlines will be allowed to operate at 85pc of their pre-Covid capacity, up from 72.5pc, with all existing Covid-19 guidelines and restrictions in place.

India's domestic air passenger traffic rose for a third consecutive month in August to 6.7mn, up by 34pc from July, according to the country's Directorate General of Civil Aviation.

But this remained 43pc below passenger numbers in August 2019, indicating that travel has yet to return to pre-pandemic levels perhaps because of strict regulations such as Covid-19 testing and thermal screening.

Daily domestic airport footfall in September, which includes both departing and arriving passengers, averaged 463,000 as of 19 September, as per Argus estimates using the daily traffic data published by the civil aviation ministry for the majority of this month.

India is still the second most infected country in the world with 33.5mn cases as of today, but lockdowns were eased after the daily increase in new cases fell to around 40,000 from over 400,000 in early May. Most mobility restrictions were removed and public and office spaces reopened last month.

By Sathya Narayanan