New Delhi, Nov 28 (IANS): For two continuous days, domestic air passenger traffic in the country crossed the four-lakh mark during this weekend.

Airlines carried 4,05,963 passengers on Saturday and operated 2,767 flights. The growth continued even on Sunday with the number increasing to 4,09,831.

This is for the first time in the last many months that the domestic aviation traffic has crossed the 4-lakh mark for two continuous days.

Domestic aviation traffic in the country continues to record growth as passengers carried by domestic airlines during January-October 2022 were 9.88 crore as against 6.20 crore during the corresponding period of previous year thereby registering annual growth of 59.16 per cent and monthly growth of 26.95 per cent.

As per the aviation regulator DGCA data, nearly 1.14 crore passengers were carried by the domestic airlines during October in the country as against 89.85 lakh during the corresponding period last year.

Industry sources said that the number of Covid-19 cases have recorded a downward trend in the last couple of weeks resulting in restoration of normalcy in the aviation traffic. Moreover, the government has also gradually done away with various restrictions.

Recently, the Government announced that wearing masks is not mandatory in flights. Earlier, the aviation regulator announced the removal of lower and upper limits on airfares in the Country. It was done after discussions on removing the fare bands for domestic airfares were held among the stakeholders, including the government authorities and airlines. Carriers were of the view that removal of the pricing caps is required for the full-fledged recovery of domestic air traffic.