The civil aviation ministry on Wednesday told parliament that further opening up of the domestic scheduled operations is subject to the prevailing COVID-19 situation, the status of operations, and passenger demand for air travel.
Within the wake of the pandemic, scheduled domestic services have been suspended from March 25, 2020, and resumed in a calibrated manner from May 25, 2020. At present, the services have been opened up to 80 percent of the summer schedule 2020.
Also mentioned, the minister provided a few figures based on inputs obtained from stakeholders on the impact of regulatory constraints on employment within the aviation sector amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The employment at airlines has reduced from 74,887 as on March 31 to 67,906 as on September 30 the last yr, whereas those at airports declined from 67,760 to 48,513 throughout the same period.
“The employment at ground handling agencies has reduced from 37,720 as on March 31, 2020, to 25,074 as on September 30, 2020,” added in a statement.
Also, the employment at cargo operators dropped from 9,555 as of March 31, 2020, to 9,385 at the end of September 30, 2020.
After the resumption of domestic air services in May last yr, initially, only 33 percent of the summer schedule 2020 was allowed to be operated. The same was increased to 45 percent on June 26 and then to 80 percent on December 3, 2020.
