Airline company IndiGo on Sunday said it will cancel around 20 per cent of its scheduled flights due to rising COVID-19 cases. "We anticipate that around 20 per cent of our current scheduled operations will be withdrawn from service," it said in a statement.
"Where possible, cancellations of flights will be done at least 72 hours in advance and customers will be moved to the next available flight and will also be able to change their travel through the use of Plan B on our website," the statement said.
Besides, it decided to waive change fees for all new and existing bookings made up to January 31, 2022, for flights up to March 2022. The airline operator urged the passengers to avoid connecting to the call centre and instead use its digital channels where possible, as it is getting a large volume of calls.
Earlier in December, the airline had said that it remains 'cautiously optimistic' on the impact the Omicron COVID-19 variant might have on the country's aviation sector.
In conversation with IANS, Sanjay Kumar, Chief Strategy and Revenue Officer, IndiGo revealed that the airline has almost reached 100 per cent pre-COVID capacity utilisation level.
"The year 2020 and 2021 have indeed been very challenging for not just the aviation and travel industry but the global economy, and it is the economy which drives demand for our business," Kumar said.
"The domestic traffic has been good and has grown very strongly in recent months as restrictions and the pandemic eased. Things are improving gradually, and we are almost back to domestic pre-COVID capacity as well, though international travel may take a little longer,” he stated.
On intra-regional connectivity, Kumar said that the airline is focusing on connecting India's large, mid-size and small cities.
"We are continuously exploring new opportunities across the length and breadth of the country and expanding our network as per the demand. We are closely monitoring the current trends across air traffic, train passengers as well as economic situation. Based on all these factors and various demand estimates, we are working on new routes and flights,” he had said.