Air travel to become dearer as government hikes lower limit on airfares by 5 per cent
Air travel will now become just a little costly as the government has determined to improve the lower limit on airfares by 5 p.c amid rising aviation turbine gasoline (ATF) costs, Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Friday. The higher limit on airfares will stay as it’s for now. Just a month again, the Centre had elevated the lower and higher limits on home airfares by 10-30 p.c due to rising ATF costs.
While saying resumption of scheduled home flights in May final 12 months, the Aviation Ministry had positioned limits on airfares by way of seven bands categorised on the premise of flight period.
The first band consists of flights having lower than 40-minute period and its lower limit has been elevated to Rs 2,310 on Friday. The lower limit for the very best band of flights having period of 180-210 minutes was additional hiked to Rs 7,560.
(*5*) Puri tweeted. “We may open the sector for 100% operations when daily passenger traffic crosses 3.5 lakhs on 3 occasions in a month.”
Currently, the airways are permitted to function no more than 80 per cent of their per-COVID home flights.
“Last few days have seen a decline in the number of air passengers largely due to restrictions & imposition of compulsory RT-PCR test by various states. Due to this we have decided to retain the permissible limit to 80% of schedule,” Puri added.
The government had taken the choice to impose lower and higher limits on airfares whereas resuming home providers in May final 12 months so as to be certain that the financially-hit airways are in a position to survive as properly as passengers aren’t charged exorbitantly.
The aviation sector has been considerably impacted due to the travel restrictions imposed in India and different international locations in view of the coronavirus pandemic. All Indian carriers final 12 months took cost-cutting measures like pay cuts, go away with out pay and firing of staff.
Scheduled worldwide passenger site visitors continues to stay suspended in India since March 23, 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic. However, particular worldwide flights have been working since July 2020 underneath air bubble preparations shaped with varied international locations.
ALSO READ |Â Air travel to become dearer as govt hikes fare band by upto 30%
