The Nifty 50 index was up 139.80 points, or 0.79% at 17,769.30.

The total passenger load during August 2021 stood at 67.01 lakh compared with 50.07 lakh in July, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said on Thursday, (16 September 2021).

The passenger traffic surged 136.62% last month when compared to the same month last year, when it was barely at 28.32 lakh.

Passenger load factors (PLF) of major scheduled commercial airlines were between 60.3%-79.6% during August, up from 53.6%-74.6% in July.

During August, IndiGo ferried 38.16 lakh passengers to report a 57% market share and 74% PLF.

SpiceJet carried 5.84 lakh passengers during the month, registering a 79.6% PLF and 8.7% market share.

The ministry of civil aviation on 12 August 2021 allowed domestic airlines to increase flight capacity to 72.5% from 65%. In July, the ministry of civil aviation (MoCA) hiked the capacity of domestic flights to 65% from the earlier 50%.

The government had cut down capacity of domestic airlines from 80% to 50% from 1 June 2021 in the aftermath of the sudden spike in Covid-19 infections across the country.