Domestic flights will recommence across the country from tomorrow, i.e., Monday, 25th May- except Andhra Pradesh which will start on 26 May and West Bengal on 28 May.
Flight operations have been shut in the country for the past two months owing to the nationwide lockdown necessitated by the coronavirus pandemic.
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“It has been a long day of hard negotiations with various state govts to recommence civil aviation ops,” tweeted Puri while referring to the meeting called by Ministry of Civil Aviation of airlines and airport operators on domestic flight resumption from 25 May. At the meeting, SOPs for states/UTs was also discussed.
As per request of state govt, operations in Andhra Pradesh will recommence on limited scale from 26 May. For Tamil Nadu there will be max 25 arrivals in Chennai but there’s no limit on number of departures.For other airports in TN flights will operate as in other parts of country
— Hardeep Singh Puri (@HardeepSPuri) May 24, 2020
While the flight operations will begin from 26 May in Andhra’s Vijaywada and Vizag airports, those in West Bengal will recommence from 28 May on a limited scale.
While the flights will take off and land from Mumbai, they will be only operating at one-third schedule, said Puri.
Mumbai airport will handle 50 domestic flights per day and Hyderabad airport will handle 30 domestic flights per day from Monday.
“Starting tomorrow, Mumbai airport will resume 25 commercial passenger flight movements on departure and 25 on arrival”, said PRO, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA), Mumbai.
CSMIA urges passengers above the age of 14 to mandatorily download Aarogya Setu app. CSMIA also advises passengers above 80 years as well as expectant mothers and passengers with health issues to restrict travelling: PRO, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport, Mumbai https://t.co/ixKgXqhKX5
— NewsMobile (@NewsMobileIndia) May 24, 2020
Airports Authority of India, Chennai, said number of incoming flights will be restricted to 25 per day and that flights to Coimbatore, Madurai and Trichy will operate. Flights from Gujarat, Maharashtra may be kept to the bare minimum possible, AAI said.
“There is no issue in operating any number of outgoing flights from Tamil Nadu,” said AAI.
After the Centre announced the resumption of services, many states had expressed reservations. Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Bihar, Punjab, Assam and Andhra Pradesh have announced their respective quarantine measures for passengers arriving at their airports.