by Aakash Srivastava
Government’s decision to permit airlines to operate in full capacity is a well thought, welcome decision and it’s a win –win situation for all, believes Jitender Bhargava, former ED Air India.
On 12th of October, the Government notified that all domestic airlines will be permitted to operate at 100 percent of their pre-covid capacity beginning on October 18. Since May 2020, the Ministry of Civil Aviation has capped domestic airline capacity, due to a surge in Covid cases but this year as the cases declined the government reduced the cap. Currently, the cap on domestic flight capacity is set at 85 percent.
According to Mr. Bhargava, the government has taken a well evaluated decision as the aviation industry was going through a tough time, people were losing jobs, airlines were losing their revenue and overall morale was at an all time low.
“Once airlines will be able to use their full strength without government restriction they will be able to make optimal use of their resources including cabin crews, pilots and engineers. It will eventually improve their revenue,” he stated.
“Let’s take an example of the share market, it was low during the pandemic but went beyond limits as the market came to normalcy. Similarly in the aviation industry we are expecting a surge in passenger traffic,” he further expressed that to the Indian Aerospace & Defence Bulletin.
As per Mr. Bhargava, we can see the concept of revenge travel as lot of frequent travellers were forced or bound to stay at home due to covid cases but now as life is coming back to normalcy we can expect people rushing out for several reasons like wedding, meeting family members, business affairs, vacation etc.
And airlines are able to operate in full capacity, due to which we can expect a decline in ticket prices too. So, with this decision airports, airlines and passengers all will be happy as the consequences of this decision will be beneficial for everyone.
