Domestic flights to resume functioning in 'calibrated manner' from May 25: Govt

May 20,2020

Domestic flights to resume functioning in 'calibrated manner' from May 25: Govt

The Union Aviation Minister, Hardeep Singh Puri on Wednesday said that domestic civil aviation flights will start from Monday (25 May, 2020) in calibrated manner.
New Delhi | Jagran News Desk: Nearly after two months of a pause, the Union Aviation Minister, Hardeep Singh Puri on Wednesday announced that domestic civil aviation operations will start from Monday (25 May, 2020) in calibrated manner. He also said that the airport authorities and airlines are also being informed of the resumption to be ready for operations.

Informing about the resumption of the flights, Hardeep Singh Puri took to Twitter and said, "Domestic civil aviation operations will recommence in a calibrated manner from Monday 25th May 2020. All airports & air carriers are being informed to be ready for operations from 25th May. SOPs for passenger movement are also being separately issued by @MoCA_GoI". 

The development comes a day after Puri had said that it is not only up to the Central government to decide on the resumption of domestic flights, as states will also have to be ready to allow civil aviation operations. 

It is not up to @MoCA_GoI or centre alone to decide on resuming domestic flights. In the spirit of cooperative federalism, the govt of states where these flights will take off & land should be ready to allow civil aviation operations," Puri had tweeted on Tuesday.

On Sunday, after the Ministry of Home Affairs' decision to extend the lockdown till May 31, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) had said that it will suitably inform the airlines about flights resumption in due course.

In its guidelines for lockdown 4.0, the MHA had said that all domestic and international air travel of passengers will be prohibited till May 31, except for domestic medical services, domestic air ambulance and for security purposes.

All flight operations were halted in March when the government imposed the nation-wide lockdown to contain the spread of the coronavirus. However, cargo flights and special flights started to bring stranded Indians from abroad have been running during the lockdown period. 

Earlier on Friday, the Airport Authority of India (AAI) had issued an advisory to the passengers, hinting at the possible resumptions of the domestic flight services, during the fourth leg of the lockdown. 

‘Carry a hand sanitizer, wear a mask and register on the Aarogya Setu mobile application, maintain 4-feet physical distance from co-passengers, do web check-in’, are some of the guidelines issued by the Airport Authority of India in its advisory for the passengers.