New Delhi: Indian airlines will deploy over 8% more flights this winter season, with 23,732 flight departures a week, according to data from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).
Total flight departures in this winter will also be 1.4% higher than in the winter of 2019, which saw 23,403 departures, and 3.6% higher than in the summer schedule, in which airlines had proposed 22,907 flight departures.
DGCA approves flight departures for airlines in India twice a year under the summer and winter schedules. The number of flights approved depends on the number of flight departures that an airline has applied for. The data is for the upcoming winter schedule, which is valid from the last Sunday of October (29 Oct) to the last Saturday of March (30 Mar).
The suspension of Go First’s operations in May has left a void as the airline had scheduled 1,390 flight departures in the previous winter season.
India’s largest airline, IndiGo, is set to witness the highest increase among major carriers in terms of flights deployed. The airline has proposed 13,119 flight departures, 30% more than the 10,085 it proposed last year.
Tata-owned Air India is expected to see 19% growth; it has proposed 2,367 flight departures a week as compared to 1,990 last year. The cumulative flight departures proposed by AirAsia India and Air India Express stood at 1,940, compared to 1,462 last year, while Vistara witnessed a 2% drop in proposed flights deployment to 1,902 a week.
For India’s youngest airline Akasa Air, weekly flight departures will increase 5% from the summer schedule and 65% from the previous winter schedule to 790 flights a week.
Low-cost carrier SpiceJet, which continues to face curtailed capacity, will see a 33% drop from the year-ago period and 5% decrease from the summer schedule, with a proposed deployment of 2,132 flights a week.
“Out of these 118 airports, Bhatinda, Jaisalmer, Ludhiana, Nanded, Shivmoga, Salem, Utkela, Hindon and Ziro are the new airports proposed by the scheduled airlines, whereas operations from Gondia airport have not been proposed in Winter Schedule 2023,” the DGCA said.
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Updated: 23 Oct 2023, 07:15 PM IST