Domestic flights to become costlier as The Civil Aviation Ministry has raised the lower limit on fares by 13 to 16 percent, as per an official order with effect from June 1.The capacity of domestic flight will also be reduced from 80% to 50%.

The second wave has affected India in every way possible and air transportation is no exception. Though no changes have been made on the upper limit, the fare for domestic travel less than 40 minutes of duration will be hiked by Rs 2,300 to Rs 2,600.

Flights with duration between 40 minutes to one hour will have fares at a lower limit of Rs 3,300. The fares for such flights were earlier capped by the ministry at Rs 2,900.

The significant reduction in the number of passengers resulted in the sudden hike of ticket fare and reduction of domestic flights. The MOCA's order stated "In view of the sudden surge in the number of active COVID 19 cases across the country, decrease in passenger traffic and passenger load factor, the existing capacity cap of 80 per cent capacity may be read as 50 per cent capacity,"

It is notable that the ministry had increased lower and upper limits of domestic airfare by 10 per cent to 13 per cent earlier in February 2021.