The Indian government has allowed air careers across the country to operate at a marginally enhanced capacity, with as many as 7.5 more flights plying on domestic routes. To be precise, air careers can now operate at 72.5 per cent of their pre-Covid capacity, up from the 65 per cent allowed during the Covid-induced lockdown.
In view of the Covid-driven lockdown earlier this year, the Union Aviation Ministry was regulating both, domestic fares and the operational capacity of air careers. In line with this, the domestic capacity was reduced from 80 per cent during the pre-Covid period to 65 per cent on 1 June 2021.
As of now, the survival of the entire travel industry, including airlines and hotels, rests on domestic travellers, since international travel could take a long time to resume.
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The traffic at Hyderabad Airport is dominated by the domestic segment, which accounts for about 81% of the total traffic experienced by the airport over the last five years, a recently released consultation paper released by the Airports Economic Regulatory Authority (AERA) on Hyderabad Airport (HIAL) tariff claims. Reportedly, the AERA is of the view that the post-pandemic recovery at the Hyderabad Airport would be largely driven by domestic travellers, and that it will recover at a faster rate than other major airports which are dependent on international traffic.
Although international travel norms are to be set by countries individually, depending on the pandemic situation prevalent in the country of the traveller; stakeholders of the domestic segment have been pushing for uniformity in the norms set for domestic travel in India.
Industry leaders believe that the RT-PCR testing requirement should be discarded for those domestic travellers who have been fully vaccinated.
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