Domestic flight services to resume from Monday, May 25

On Wednesday, the central government announced that flight services would begin from Monday, May 25, Monday. It has also laid the ground for gradual resumption of scheduled commercial flight operations that have been shut since March 25.

“Domestic civil aviation operations will recommence in a calibrated manner from Monday May 25, 2020. All airports and air carriers are being informed to be ready for operations from May 25. SOPs for passenger movement are also being separately issued by @MoCA_GoI,” Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri tweeted.

All domestic passenger flight operations were suspended during the lockdown period. However, cargo flights, medical evacuation flights and special flights approved by the aviation regulator DGCA were allowed to operate.

AAI’s directorate of operations has also issued a set of standard operating procedures. It said, “Once the lockdown period is declared to be over, airports shall be facilitating limited domestic/international scheduled flights in phases, to start with, may be at 30 per cent capacity to facilitate required social distancing.” It added initially, airline operations may be limited to Tier-l cities and major Tier-ll cities.

Also, the government is also looking at the option of making the Aarogya Setu app mandatory for flyers. PTI qouted an official saying, “If the proposal is approved in the Aviation ministry, passengers who do not have the app on their phone would not be allowed to board their flight.”