Domestic airlines to increase summer flights by 15%

Domestic airlines will operate 17,170 weekly departures, an increase of 15.5 per cent over the 14,869 weekly departures during the last summer schedule, according to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).

Globally, airlines follow two schedules – a winter schedule which runs from the last Sunday of October to the last Saturday of March of the following year. The summer schedule runs from the last Sunday of March till the last Saturday of October.

Jet Airways, Jet Lite and Air Costa are the only airlines which will not be increasing the number of domestic flights during the summer schedule 2017 as compared to what they operated in the previous summer schedule, the data show.

The data released by DGCA show that Jet Airways plans to operate 3,040 flights a week during summer scheduled 2017 a decline of 1.9 per cent from the 3,100 flights a week it operated in summer schedule 2016.

JetLite plans to operate 498 flights a week in summer schedule 2017, a 4 per cent decline from the 519 weekly flights operated during the previous summer schedule. Air Costa plans to operate 126 weekly flights during the latest summer schedule, a decline of 40 per cent from the flights operated during the previous summer schedule.

In comparison, TruJet plans to operate 238 weekly flights during summer schedule 2017 or a jump of 112.5 per cent over the 112 weekly flights operated during summer 2016.

AirAsia is likely to see a jump of close to 80 per cent in the flights this summer as it plans 502 weekly departures in the latest schedule.

Vistara, the domestic airline set up jointly by Tata Sons and Singapore Airlines plans to have 600 weekly departures in summer schedule 2017, an increase of 79.6 per cent from the 334 weekly departures during summer 2016.

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