Govt may consider allowing flight operations in staggered manner post lockdown

The government may consider allowing flight operations in a staggered manner after the 21-day nationwide lockdown ends on April 14, officials said on Sunday.

Except Air India, all other airlines have been taking bookings for commercial passenger services from April 15.

Officials said the government may consider allowing operations of passenger flights from April 15 in a staggered manner, at the same time suggesting that flights may not be allowed to operate on all sectors.

Reacting to reports on likely resumption of flights, Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri called them "mere speculation".

He referred to a tweet by him on April 2 stating that a decision on resumption of flights after the end of the lockdown period remains to be taken.

India suspended domestic and international commercial passenger flight operations from midnight on March 24 for 21 days in sync with the nation-wide lockdown.

However, cargo flights, medical evacuation flights, offshore helicopter operations and flights permitted on special ground by the aviation regulator DGCA were allowed to operate during the period.

"News about resumption of passenger flights in a staggered manner from 15 April is mere speculation. The correct position is spelt out in my tweet of 2nd April 2020," Puri tweeted on Sunday.

On April 2, he had tweeted: "The current lockdown on both domestic and international passenger flights is till April 15. A decision to restart the flights after this period remains to be taken. If required, we will have to assess the situation on a case by case basis."
Asked at a press conference on April 2 about resumption of international flights, Puri had said: "Air India had first cancelled the flights to China, then the other carriers stopped flying. "