New Delhi, Sep 16 (IANS): Easing Covid travel restrictions along with pent-up demand and low base lifted India's domestic air passenger traffic in August.

According to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), the country's scheduled domestic flight operations ferried 67.01 lakh passengers last month.

In August 2020, the traffic numbers stood at 28.32 lakh, while on a sequential basis, the sector had ferried 50.07 lakh people in July this year.

Last year, domestic flight services had resumed on May 25 after the suspension of operations caused by the Covid-19 pandemic in end-March.

However, during the second wave of the pandemic in 2021, limited civil aviation operations were permitted.

"Passengers carried by domestic airlines during Jan-Aug 2021 were 460.45 lakh as against 401.17 lakh during the corresponding period of the previous year, thereby registering annual growth of 14.78 per cent and monthly growth of 136.62 per cent," the DGCA said in its August data report.

Besides, the report cited that the overall cancellation rate of scheduled domestic airlines for the month of August was 1.20 per cent.

"During August 2021, a total of 338 passenger-related complaints were received by the scheduled domestic airlines. The number of complaints per 10,000 passengers carried for the month of August was around 0.50," the DGCA said.