TLI Staff
New Delhi: Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri’s attempt to do a Narendra Modi is giving nightmares to both airlines as well as flyers stranded in various cities for the last two months’ lockdown.
The diplomat-turned-minister had announced that airlines would resume domestic flights from May 25 but it has now emerged that many states are not in favour of air services clearly suggesting that he did not take Chief Ministers on board before deciding on the date.
Domestic civil aviation operations will recommence in a calibrated manner from Monday 25th May 2020.
All airports & air carriers are being informed to be ready for operations from 25th May.
SOPs for passenger movement are also being separately issued by @MoCA_GoI.
— Hardeep Singh Puri (@HardeepSPuri) May 20, 2020
Moreover, there is also no clarity of mandatory quarantine for flying passengers with each state having their own standard operating procedures (SOPs).
While many states such as Uttar Pradesh and Chhattisgarh have suggested mandatory quarantine, Puri never factored in these aspects while taking to micro-blogging site Twitter to announce decisions pertaining to opening of air services.
It may be noted that Prime Minister Modi has a history of giving shocks to general public on key government decisions, starting from note-ban in November, 2016 to the recent decision of first Janta curfew and then nationwide lockdown. Puri seems to be following his footsteps but in the process inconveniencing lakhs of people.
In an interview earlier, Puri had said that domestic flights could start from May 18.
With West Bengal conveying its decision to continue flight operations on hold till May 27, airlines are being forced to cancel flights and refund tickets to passengers or reschedule them.
Facing flak from all corners for the goof-up, the aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) is learnt to have held a meeting on Sunday to finalise new flight schedule.
As per the fresh schedule, flights to Kolkata and Bagdogra, the two busiest airports in West Bengal, airlines would be allowed to operate 10 flights each from the two cities. Flight to Vizag and Bagdogra would start from May 26.
Only 25 flights would be allowed to and from Mumbai from May 25 (Monday). There is all likelihood of 15 flights to and from Hyderabad on Monday.
Industry sources told Top Lead India that national carrier Air India has cancelled its flights to Kolkata, Bagdogra and Vijaywada and would resume them only from May 28. While these flights have been cancelled, there is still uncertainty around flights to Mumbai, Hyderabad and Chennai and a final decision is expected shortly.
Many states have been grappling with a surge in Coronavirus cases and hence do not want air services to start. This has added to the confusion among airlines and flyers throwing their travel plans out of gear.
Grounded for over two months now due to Coronavirus pandemic, the airlines had geared up to operate some commercial flights from May 25 after Minister Puri this week announced the date. He hinted that there would be gradual easing of flight operations and one-third of the flights, from pre-lockdown period, would be operational.