‘Speculation’, says aviation minister on report of resumption of flights after lockdown

india

Updated: Apr 05, 2020 22:40 IST

Civil aviation minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Sunday dismissed a news agency report that the government is likely to allow domestic and international flights in a staggered manner after the 21-day lockdown ends on April 14.

“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 April 2, Puri had tweeted that a decision to restart flights after this period (lockdown) remains to be taken. “If required, we will have to assess the situation on a case-by-case basis,” he had said.

On Friday, India’s national carrier Air India stopped advance bookings for all flights till April 30.

Currently only cargo flights carrying essential supplies are being operated on priority to the northeastern region and other remote places including Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.

On March 22, India announced suspending international flights for a week. It was later extended until April 15 coinciding with the lockdown to break the chain of transmission of coronavirus that ha snow infected almost 4,000 people in the country.

Earlier that month, India had suspended most visas for foreigners and stopped flights to a clutch of countries.

Domestic flights stopped as the lockdown came into force but even before that many airlines had cancelled flights or stopped services due to low traffic.