Domestic carriers to operate 23,403 flights per week during winter schedule

Indian carriers will operate 23,403 domestic flights per week during the winter schedule starting from October 27, with IndiGo set to fly 10,310 flights, according to the DGCA.

The winter schedule is from October 27 to March 28, 2020.

The number of weekly flights in the upcoming winter schedule is 1.2 per cent higher than 23,117 such flights operated during the previous winter schedule.

A senior DGCA official said 23,403 departures per week have been finalised, covering 103 airports.

There would be more flights with the addition/acquisition of aircraft by the operators during the winter schedule.

Out of these 103 airports, a scheduled domestic airline has proposed to operate to/ from Pithoragarh (Uttarakhand) and Hindon airport (Uttar Pradesh) as new stations, the official said.

National carrier Air India will operate 2,254 weekly flights during the latest winter schedule, an increase of 17.6 per cent compared to the year-ago period.

SpiceJet would operate 4,316 weekly flights, a rise of 46 per cent while IndiGo would fly 10,310 flights every week during the winter schedule. The latter is an increase of 14.2 per cent compared to the previous winter schedule.

Vistara and GoAir would operate 1,376 and 2,308 flights every week, respectively.

The official said that due to the sudden suspension of operations by Jet Airways, there was a reduction of around 3,600 departures per week.

The departures per week have increased by 19.9 per cent in the upcoming winter schedule if the departures of Jet Airways are not included in the comparison, the official added.

Running out of cash to operate flights, Jet Airways shuttered operations in April.

Jet Airways had 3,247 weekly flights during the previous winter schedule.