Domestic airlines will operate 44.3 per cent fewer flights at 12,983 departures a week in the winter schedule 2020-21 which runs from October 25 till March 27 next year.

The new schedule has been approved at 60 per cent of the capacity that airlines were flying in the pre-Covid period. During winter 2019-2020 domestic airlines had 23,307 weekly departures.

The latest data released the Directorate General of Civil Aviation shows that SpiceJet will have 54.7 per cent fewer weekly departures during winter schedule 2020-21 at 1,957 as against 4,316 previously. Similarly, Air India will operate half of its flights at 1,126 weekly departures during winter schedule 2020-21 as against 2254 weekly departures previously. GoAir will have 1,203 weekly departures in the latest winter schedule as against 2,308 weekly departures previously.

Vistara will see a 38 per cent drop in weekly departures during the latest winter schedule at 852 as against 1,376 previously.

AirAsia will see a 34.2 per cent decline in weekly departures in the latest schedule at 885 (1,345 weekly departures previously).

The domestic airlines will fly to 95 airports including six in Tamil Nadu like Salem, Tuticorin, Madurai and Chennai, four in Kerala including Cochin and Thiruvanthapuram and eight in Karnataka including Vidyanagar, Hubli, Belgaum and Bengaluru.

There has been a 47.3 per cent decline in flights operating during the latest winter schedule compared to 24629 weekly departures that the airlines operated during the summer schedule.

Globally, airlines follow a winter and summer schedule.