NEW DELHI: The total number of flights cancelled by Indian carriers since the beginning of the West Asia crisis has crossed 10,000, Asanga Chuba, Joint Secretary, Civil Aviation Ministry, said on Tuesday. The number of flights operated per day have reduced drastically, he explained.
Responding to a query during an Inter Ministerial briefing on the West Asia crisis, Chuba said, "On an average, Indian carriers operate between 300 and 350 flights per day between India and the Gulf Region and today that number has gone down to 80 to 90 flights per day due to the ongoing crisis. “Beginning February 28, the total number of flights cancelled by Indian carriers is more than 10,000.”
He conceded that airlines were under immense pressure.
“There is pressure on the airlines on two fronts – 50% of all international operations by Indian carriers are to this region. International flights are a good source of revenue for the airlines. It has definitely impacted their revenue and obviously impacts the financials of the airlines,” he added. The carriers have demonstrated resilience, he felt.
The Indian carriers to Europe and Northern America need to take a longer route and this impacted their travel time and operational costs, he said.
To a query on the relaxations given, particularly the Flight Duty Time Limitations to the crew, the Joint Secretary said, “The relaxation will be revisited. It is an evolving situation. Due to the intervention of the government, the increase in fares on the domestic route was just a moderate increase.
“Distance-based surcharge has been imposed by the airlines to cover the operational cost due to the Aviation Turbine Fuel cost,” he added.
ATF takes up 40% of the operational cost of an airline, he said.
Elaborating on the measures taken to help the industry as a whole, the official said that foreign carriers like Emirates, Kuwait Airways and Jazeera Airways have been permitted to operate passenger aircraft for cargo movement in the midst of ongoing disruptions to ensure supply chain line was not impacted, the Joint Secretary said. .
The Ministry of Civil Aviation is working with all stakeholders to take all efforts to support the industry, specially the airlines to bring down the costs which eventually will be passed on to the passengers, he added.
The domestic passenger numbers yesterday were more than 4,70,000 passengers and 3,300 flights are operating daily with very high passenger load, Chuba pointed out.