Time period for airfare structure, capacity now till Nov 24

New Delhi, July 24 (IANS) The Centre on Friday extended the time period for limited domestic passenger flight operations and the airfare cap till November 24.

The earlier time period for the directive, under which the country’s domestic passenger flight services had restarted, was supposed to have lasted from May 25 to August 24.

On Friday, the Ministry of Civil Aviation, in two separate orders, directed the Directorate General of Civil Aviation to implement the extension of the earlier framework.

Accordingly, domestic carriers will be allowed to operate with 45 per cent of their total capacity.

Similarly, domestic passenger flight services offered in the fixed minimum and maximum fare structure for different routes will remain the same.

Under the fare structure, air routes have been divided into seven sections based on travel time. Each such section has its minimum and maximum fare.

The seven price bands are based on the duration of the flights with ‘A’ being the shortest and ‘G’ being the longest. The price bands had been instituted for three months, from May 25 to August 24.

India allowed airlines to recommence domestic passenger flight operations in a calibrated manner from May 25.

Both scheduled domestic and international passenger flights were suspended since March 25, due to the imposition of the nationwide lockdown in the wake of the Covid-19 outbreak.

–IANS

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