New Delhi, Feb 20 (IANS): Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Saturday said that the country's air passenger traffic is "within touching distance of pre-Covid numbers".

In a tweet, the minister said: "2,90,518 passengers on 2,360 flights on 19 Feb is within touching distance of Pre-COVID numbers & marks revival of the domestic sector."

"From transporting essential & medical supplies, to movement of vaccines, civil aviation sector plays a key role in efforts against COVID19."

Since the resumption of operations on May 25, domestic air traffic continued to sequentially improve in January 2021.

The domestic passenger traffic rose 5.55 per cent sequentially in January to 77.34 lakh passengers from 73.27 lakh reported for December 2020.

However, on a year-on-year basis the January numbers stood 39.50 per cent lower than 127.83 lakh reported for the corresponding period of the previous year.

At present, airlines can operate up to 80 per cent of their pre-Covid capacity.