In a relief for domestic passengers who are having to abort travel plans due to the Omicron surge and decline in demand for domestic air travel due to restrictions imposed by State Governments, several airlines – Air India, IndiGo, Go First and Vistara announced a free change of date option on domestic tickets with confirmed travel plans until March 31 this year. The number of air passengers has slipped considerably as Covid cases have spiked. The Ministry of Civil Aviation data showed 2, 40, 795 air passengers travelled on 2,409 flights on January 9, down from 3.85 lakh recorded on December 26. Occupancy of airlines have also reduced to the range of 60 percent.
