Indian airlines intend to operate nearly ten per cent fewer domestic flights. The airline industry has been impacted by higher prices and instability in certain regions of the world. According to DGCA (Director General of Civil Aviation), there are currently a total of weekly domestic airline flights planned at slightly less than 23,000 weekly from the end of March. Last year, there were more than 25,600 weekly flights.
One primary factor in this reduction in scheduled domestic airline flights is the current conflict within the Middle East region of the world, which has resulted in multiple disruptions across a number of routes, which are traditionally needed to run certain domestic flights regularly, as well as greatly increased the aviation turbine fuel (ATF) cost for airlines.
Nine scheduled airlines, including Air India, IndiGo, SpiceJet, and Akasa Air, among others, will adhere to the revised schedule. The airlines are working to revise their schedules in accordance with the availability of aircraft and the challenges being faced. Regulators have also requested that they embrace conservative scheduling techniques due to the recent challenges experienced, such as aircraft maintenance, supply chain issues, and a shortage of pilots.
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This is the second time that airlines have scaled down their services. This shows that airlines are still recovering. However, demand for travel is still high. Experts say that fewer flights may result in higher ticket prices, especially during peak travel times.
