Domestic airlines plan to operate 6% more weekly flights for summer 2024 schedule

While most major carriers have announced plans to increase flights in the upcoming summer schedule to capitalise on the gap in the market created by the collapse of Go First, SpiceJet has cut its weekly planned departures by 26 percent compared to last year

Domestic airlines will operate 24,275 weekly flights during the summer schedule starting from March 31. This is nearly a 6 percent increase compared to the year-ago period.

The number of weekly departures is just 2.30 percent higher than the 23,732 flights being operated by the scheduled carriers in the ongoing winter schedule, according to data shared by the aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).

The summer schedule, which starts on March 31 and runs till October 26, has been approved for 125 airports, including the newly inaugurated airports in Azamgarh, Aligarh, Chitrakoot, Gondia, Jalgaon, Moradabad and Pithoragarh.

According to the schedule, IndiGo plans to operate the highest number of departures with 13,050 flights per week followed by Vistara with 2,324 weekly flights. Air India, SpiceJet, Air India Express, IAX Connect, Akasa Air and Alliance Air are going to operate 2,278 flights, 1,657 flights, 1,239 flights, 1,198 flights, 903 flights and 896 flights on a weekly basis, respectively.

While most major carriers have announced plans to increase flights in the upcoming summer schedule to capitalise on the gap in the market created by the collapse of Go First, SpiceJet has cut its weekly planned departures by 26 percent compared to last year.

SpiceJet had reduced its planned weekly departures by 30 percent on-year for the summer schedule of 2023 as well.

Last year's summer schedule was approved for 110 airports.

Compared to the winter schedule, which ends on March 30, domestic airlines — including the combined entity of Air India Express and AIX Connect — will operate 31.6 percent more flights in the upcoming summer schedule.

Vistara and Akasa Air also plan to operate 22 percent and 14 percent more flights in the upcoming summer schedule compared to the ongoing winter schedule.

IndiGo, Air India, SpiceJet and Alliance Air have all announced plans to reduce weekly flying capacity in the upcoming summer schedule compared to the ongoing winter schedule, according to the data shared by the DGCA.

IndiGo plans to operate 0.5 percent fewer flight or around 70 fewer weekly flights, Air India plans to operate 3.8 percent less capacity or 89 fewer weekly flights, SpiceJet plans to operate 22 percent less capacity or 475 fewer weekly flights and Alliance Air plans to operate 2 percent lower capacity or 18 fewer weekly flights, as per DGCA data.

Domestic airlines had last month warned the DGCA that they would be forced to cut flights if the DGCA did not extend its June 1 deadline for the implementation of the new flight duty time limitation (FDTL) norms for pilots.

The Federation of Indian Airlines — which includes IndiGo, Air India, Vistara, and SpiceJet — in February wrote to the regulator requesting a deferral of the deadline by one year. They cited the need for approximately 25 per cent more pilots to implement the new norms and expressed concerns about their ability to hire and train that many pilots by June 1.