India allows domestic flights to operate at full capacity from Monday

• The Ministry of Civil Aviation has allowed all domestic flights to operate at full capacity from October 18.
• Former aviation secretary previously said that the ministry is looking to remove all caps on domestic flights ahead of the festive season.
• Domestic flights were allowed to operate at 85% capacity until now.

The Ministry of Civil Aviation has allowed all domestic flights to operate at full capacity from Monday, October 18, onwards.

The development was reported by news agency ANI.

This comes a few days after the former aviation secretary Pradeep Kharola, who retired on September 30, said that the ministry is looking to remove caps on airfare and capacity on domestic flights ahead of the festive season.

The ministry introduced a cap on the capacity of domestic flights last year in May amid the rising Covid-19 cases. Such a cap allowed the flights to follow social distancing and minimise the exposure to coronavirus.

On May 25 of 2020, the flights were allowed to resume after a two-month-long halt at one-third capacity, which has been increasing gradually. The Ministry of Civil Aviation, in September, had increased the capacity to 85% of flights.

Alongside this, the ministry had also imposed a lower and upper cap of airfare based on the flight duration, which ensured that air tickets were not out of budget for the passengers.

The Indian aviation industry has been pushing the Indian government as well as the Ministry of Civil Aviation to do away with these limits for several months now. The industry believes that such caps hamper competitiveness and only benefit low-cost carriers.

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