No intention to curtail flight services amid Covid spike: Hardeep Puri

Puri further said he directed airport officials and authorities to put into no-flyers list such passengers who are not following Covid norms

Amid rise in coronavirus infections, Civil Aviation minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Saturday said that there is no intention to curtail flight services in the near term.

"No intention of curtailing flight services, we've been further reopening it," Puri said

Earlier the plan was to open it 100 per cent when summer schedule begins from April 1 from the current levels of 80 per cent, but we can't do it now now due to the second spike of coronavirus infections, he said.

Just before the national lockdown was announced last year, domestic flights were halted in March and resumed later on May 25.

Puri further said he directed airport officials and authorities to put into no-flyers list such passengers who are not wearing mask and not maintaining social distancing norms.

India's domestic air traffic fell 37 per cent year-on-year to 7.8 million passengers in February amid travel curbs and capacity restrictions due to the pandemic, according to rating agency Icra.