Air travel to restore pre-COVID level by the end of 2020: Hardeep Singh Puri

Civil Aviation
Minister, Hardeep Singh Puri on
Monday said that air travel is likely to reach pre-COVID levels by the end of
2020 or the beginning of 2021.

“I am
confident that by the end of the year, by December 31 or soon thereafter, means a week or two weeks thereafter, we will be back to pre-COVID levels.”
PTI quoted him as saying.

Adding on to it, Puri further said, “Two days or three days ago, I think just before Diwali, we
carried 225,000 and with a scale at which we are opening up in a calibrated
manner, we have already opened up to 70% capacity.”

The Union Minister also articulated
that the authorities have been instructed to elevate travel capacity to 80%  very soon with COVID-19
safety norms in place.

Earlier this week, Puri stated that around 2.06 lakh passengers have used domestic air services since the onset of air travel after the nationwide lockdown in the view of coronavirus pandemic.

“Domestic operations recommenced with 30K passengers on 25 May & have reached 2.06 lakhs on 8 Nov 2020.” he tweeted

Civil Aviation Minister, Puri also holds the portfolio of Urban and Housing Affairs.