Indian domestic air travel increases 10.1% coming summer

New Delhi: Domestic airlines services increased by 10.1 per cent, reaching 25,309 weekly flights in the coming summer schedule against the 22,980 last year, PTI reported, citing India's aviation regulator DGCA's (Directorate General of Civil Aviation) information on Friday.

The DGCA said that the summer schedule, which begins on March 27 and ends on October 29, for Indian flights had been finalized after a meeting on air slots held virtually last month.

The DGCA said, "It has been observed that 25,309 departures per week have been finalized to and from 112 airports. Out of these 112 airports, Gondia, Ziro and Puducherry are the new airports proposed by the scheduled airlines."

DGCI said that airlines company IndiGo had increased its domestic services by 10.4 per cent, touching 11,130 weekly services for summer this year while it was 10,084 last year. The Alliance Air, owned by the Union government, will operate 17.6 per cent more flights this season, that is 982 services against 835 last year, it said.

While Tata Group's AirAsia India will operate 16 per cent more with 1,601 weekly domestic services, SpiceJet will be operating 14.2 per cent more.

Air India, now owned by Tata Group, will increase 10 per cent more services to 2,456, DGCA noted. Vistara and Go First are increasing 6.7 and 1.9 per cent, respectively, while regional carrier FlyBig operates 158 weekly domestic services in summer 2022 while it was 54 in 2021, DGCA said.

The pandemic restrictions have badly affected the aviation industry for 24 months. But the flight travel has been increasing in the last two weeks.