With the government of India removing flight capacity restrictions on airlines. Many were expecting to see a sizeable rise in the number of flights being operated over the winter period. While the number of flights over the winter is only down by 4 per cent when compared with 2019 figures. Some of India’s carriers like Indigo, SpiceJet and Air India have decided to operate slightly fewer flights when compared with pre-covid levels.
Despite some airlines reducing the number of services over the winter period, the number of flights that are scheduled for this winter season is certainly a lot higher than it was a year ago. IN the case of Vistara, the full-service carrier has opted to significantly increase the number of flights for this winter season in comparison to what it operated over the same period for 2019.
In total, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has approved 22,287 weekly domestic flights for 11 scheduled domestic Indian airlines. The winter schedule for carriers in India begins on the 31st of October 2021 and runs until the 26th of March 2022. The approved Winter Schedule is 4 per cent less than the Winter schedule 19 (31st October 2019 – 25th March 2020).
In a statement, the DGCA said that the following winter schedule had “been approved without capacity restrictions as submitted by the scheduled domestic airlines.” The DGCA also published data on the number of scheduled flights to be operated by each carrier over the coming winter period.
Airline | Number of flights scheduled for winter 2019 | Number of flights scheduled for winter 2021 |
---|---|---|
Air India | 2,254 | 2,053 |
Air Asia India | 1,345 | 1,393 |
Alliance Air | 868 | 911 |
Fly Bug | – | 116 |
GoFirst | 2,308 | 2,290 |
Indigo | 10,243 | 10,310 |
Pawan Hans | 24 | 24 |
Star Air | 62 | 137 |
SpiceJet | 4,316 | 2,995 |
TrueJet | 444 | 450 |
Vistara | 1,376 | 1,675 |
As evident, SpiceJet has decreased its winter schedule by almost 31 per cent when compared with pre-covid levels. Meanwhile, Vistara and regional airline Star Air are both ramping up flight operations over the winter period. Ultimately, it will remain to be seen how profitable this winter season period will be for India’s airline industry
Source: https://aeronewsx.com/indias-winter-flight-schedule-numbers-only-down-4-per-cent/