Covid-19: IndiGo to reduce daily flights by 20%

NEW DELHI : InterGlobe Aviation Limited-operated IndiGo, the country's largest domestic airline, on Sunday said that it will reduce its capacity by 20% due to the ongoing wave of the covid-19 pandemic. The airline also said that it is waiving off change fees for all new and existing bookings made for flights up to 31 March 2022 as a large number of passengers are changing their travel plans due to rising number of infections. IndiGo, which has a fleet of over 275 aircraft, operated about 1,500 daily flights in December. The airline had 54.3% domestic market share in November. "Where possible, cancellations of flights will be done at least 72 hours in advance and customers will be moved to the next available flight and will also be able to change their travel through the use of Plan B on our website," the airline said in a statement. India reported a single-day rise of 159,632 new coronavirus cases on 9 January, raising the total tally to 35,368,372, which includes 3,071 cases of Omicron variant reported across 27 states and union territories so far, according to data from the Union Health Ministry. Meanwhile, daily domestic air passenger traffic has been falling steadily in the last few days. On 8 January, The total number of departing domestic passengers stood at 241,108, while the total number of domestic flight arrivals stood at 2,365, according to data from the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA). Daily domestic air passenger traffic had earlier on 4 January fell below the 300,000-level for the first time since November last year due to concerns regarding a third covid wave. The total number of departing domestic passengers had then stood at 285,965, while the total number of domestic flight departures then stood at 2,660.