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Indian carriers plan to restart domestic flying after government relaxes restrictions
May 22nd 2020
Eight Indian carriers plan to resume domestic flights from Monday, schedules from the country's Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) show. Read More »
Minister for Civil Aviation, Hardeep Singh Puri, announced this week airlines could again fly domestically, ending a suspension, since late March, following the outbreak of COVID-19.
A DGCA circular published on its website yesterday of provisional schedules of eight airlines - AirAsia India, Air India and its subsidiary Alliance Air, GoAir, IndiGo, SpiceJet, TruJet and Vistara - intended to return to the skies from May 25.
IndiGo will serve 50 destinations, the provisional schedules showed. SpiceJet had 41 destinations listed, Alliance Air (38), Air India (35), Vistara (24) and AirAsia India (20).
While the bulk of the routes will be restored next Monday, some carriers are adopting a gradual approach with several flights to be resumed later in the week or in early June.
IndiGo said: "As per the recent government directive, we will resume operations of some domestic flights from 25th May, 2020. We are now open for bookings for travel from May 25, 2020."
A separate DGCA circular showed the minimum and maximum prices airlines could charge for domestic flights in the three months to August 24, 2020. The domestic market has been split into seven sectors based on the duration of the route. Routes in sector A had the lowest price band at 2,000-6,000 (US$26-79) rupees and sector G routes the highest at 6,500-18,600 rupees (US$86-245).
The DGCA circular said at least 40% of tickets on a particular flight had to be sold for less than the middle of the fare band for that particular sector. Fare bands did not include applicable taxes and did not apply to business class.
"It is necessary to ensure airlines do not charge excessive fares on the one hand and also to ensure the journey is performed only for essential purposes," the DGCA circular said.
"It is, therefore, necessary to fix a fare band airlines should charge for the fare.”
India implemented nationwide restriction of movement rules on March 25, with the bulk of airline services closed and citizens prevented from travelling. Since then, restrictions have been eased in phases and centred around areas with little spread of the coronavirus. The current restrictions, known as Phase Four, are due to expire on May 31.
