domestic The number of air passengers crossed the five lakh mark for the first time on Sunday. This is the first time in the history of domestic air traffic that more than 5 lakh people have traveled by air in a day. The Civil Aviation Ministry said in its official social media post on Monday evening that on November 17, the Indian aviation sector crossed a historic milestone with 5,05,412 domestic passengers departing in a single day. According to the ministry data, airline companies operated 3,173 flights on Sunday (November 17) and 5,05,412 passengers traveled through these flights.
Demand expected to remain strong even in winter
Civil Aviation Minister K Rammohan Naidu said that these figures show that air travel is now within the reach of more people. He said that this achievement has been achieved because of schemes like Ude Desh Ka Aam Nagrik (Udaan). The regional air connectivity scheme UDAN was launched in October 2016. Gaurav Patwari, vice president (air category), travel platform Cleartrip, said, “The main reasons for the increase in passenger numbers are festive demand and the beginning of weddings. We expect demand to remain strong even in winter.
Record of providing timely services of airline companies affected
However, in recent times, the on-time delivery (OTP) record of airline companies has been affected due to various reasons. Indigo’s OTP was 74.2 percent on Sunday. This was followed by Alliance Air with 71 percent and Akasa Air with 67.6 percent. Among other airline companies, OTP of SpiceJet and Air India was 66.1 percent and 57.1 percent respectively.
Winter program will run till March 29, 2025
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) had said in October that Indian airline companies would operate 25,007 flights every week from 124 airports in the winter program starting October 27. The winter program will commence from October 27, 2024 and continue till March 29, 2025.
