New Delhi, Dec 3 (IANS): The Centre has allowed domestic airlines to deploy up to 80 per cent of their pre-Covid flight capacity from an earlier 70 per cent, Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said on Thursday.

In a tweet, Puri said: "Domestic operations recommenced with 30K passengers on 25 May & have now touched a high of 2.52 lakhs on 30 Nov 2020."

"@MoCA_GoIa is now allowing domestic carriers to increase their operations from existing 70 per cent to 80 per cent of pre-Covid approved capacity."

Last month, the Centre had allowed domestic airlines to deploy up to 70 per cent of their flight capacity, up from 60 per cent capacity utilisation in the domestic sector allowed with effect from September 2.

In June, the capacity was raised to 45 per cent from an initial 33 per cent.

Passenger air services were suspended on March 25 due to the nationwide lockdown to check the spread of Covid-19, and domestic flights resumed in a phased manner from May 25.