India domestic air passenger traffic reaches over half of pre-Covid levels

India's domestic passenger traffic has reached more than half of pre-coronavirus pandemic level operations with the number of daily air travellers crossing over two lakh in November, a top official of the Union Ministry of Civil Aviation (MOCA) said on Saturday.

MOCA Secretary Pradeep Singh Kharola said when flights resumed after a hiatus of two months due to the COVID-19 outbreak, there were only 30,000 air passengers on the first day but the number reached over two lakh on November 2.

He also said almost 100 per cent of bookings and check-ins are now happening through the web and hailed the country's aviation fraternity for adapting very well to the new normal.

When we opened domestic aviation about five-six months back, in the month of May, on the first day, in a big country like ours, only 30,000 people travelled. And look at the figures last week, we have crossed two lakh passengers per day. In normal times, it is about three-and-a-half lakh to four lakh passengers a day, Kharola said.

So we have crossed more than half of the normal operations and at a very fast rate we are approaching the normal, he added.

The top MOCA official was speaking at the 36th foundation day of government-run Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Uran Akademi (IGRUA), a premier aircraft pilot training institute at Fursatganj in Amethi.