IndiGo CEO says flights are the safest mode of travel amid coronavirus

The airline industry is trying to convince passengers that air travel is safe after the government eased a nationwide lockdown to contain the coronavirus and allowed businesses to resume.

Ronojoy Dutta, CEO, IndiGo said that the airbus aircraft cabin is equipped with High-Efficiency Particle Filters (HEPA) which ensures that virus does get not re-circulated.

"The surfaces are cleaned thoroughly and passengers are wearing face masks. So the risk of transmission by air or through droplets is really being minimised," he said.

Aviation experts said HEPA allows complete air change approximately 15-30 times per hour or every two-four minutes.

The government had held extensive consultations with aviation stakeholders before it announced the partial resumption of domestic flights on May 25 during the fourth phase of lockdown against coronavirus.

Dutta said the Civil Aviation Ministry also organised a meeting between the airline industry and a team of doctors "who reviewed our procedures and agreed that the measures that the industry has been taking are really quite impressive".

"Therefore, I would like to stress that airlines are clearly the safest mode of transportation," Dutta said.

Dutta praised his staff and the ground staff over the way they are playing a key role in smooth operation in a pandemic situation.

He said the staff including the engineering teams ensured that the schedule was maintained and the customer relations team managed a large number of passenger enquiries with empathy and professionalism.

More than a dozen passengers have been reported Covid-19 positive since the resumption of domestic air flights. A total of 45,762 passengers took flights on June 2 till 5 pm.