Spicejet: IndiGo, GoAir & Tata airlines to operate more domestic flights this summer; SpiceJet’s to drop by a steep 30%

NEW DELHI: At 22,907 weekly domestic flights, Indian skies will 4% more connectivity this summer than the ongoing winter’s 21,945. The Directorate General Civil Aviation (DGCA) has approved the summer schedule for this year which will, among big airlines, see IndiGo operate 13% more flights this summer at 11,465; Tata Group (Air India plus Vistara and AirAsia India) operate 1.7% more at 5,490 and GoAir 10.6% more at 1,538. SpiceJet, which has been looking for funds invain for a long time now, will see its domestic weekly flights drop by a whopping 30% to 2,240 from 3,193 in the ongoing winter. The only state-owned fixed wing airline, Alliance Air, will see its flights drop by 14% to 887. (All comparison of summer 2023 to the winter of 2022-23).

To be sure, the DGCA-approved schedule means that an airline can operate upto these many flights. How many it actually operates depends on factors like demand and the financial ability to mount flights.
India has been seeing a surge in domestic air travel since late last year. March, a traditionally weak travel month, has seen an unprecedented 4.4 lakh daily domestic flyers this year’s several times. The summer travel season starts in April and lasts till June. This year there are all indications of a bumper summer for the travel industry.
The summer schedule this year is from March 26 to October 28. “It has been observed that there are 22907 departures per week which have been finalised to/from 110 airports as per summer schedule 23 compared to 21941 departures per week from 106 airports in Winter Schedule 2022. Out of these 110 airports, Jeypore, Cooch Behar, Hollongi, Jamshedpur, Pakyong and Mopa (Goa) are the new airports proposed by the scheduled airlines whereas operations from Ziro and Hindon airport are not proposed in the Summer Schedule 2023,” said a senior DGCA official.