Coronavirus impact: Domestic flights to resume from May 25, announces Aviation Minister

Domestic air travel that has been inoperative for the past two months will resume from May 25. Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said in a tweet, "Domestic civil aviation operations will recommence in a calibrated manner from Monday 25th May 2020. All airports and air carriers are being informed to be ready for operations from 25th May. SOPs for passenger movement are also being separately issued by the Aviation Ministry."

Domestic as well as international flight operations were shut down on March 25 when the nationwide lockdown was imposed.

The minister had earlier said that the resumption of services did not only depend on the Centre but also on the states. He said that flights can be resumed only if states agree. "It is not up to the Ministry of Civil Aviation or the Centre alone to decide on resuming domestic flights. In the spirit of cooperative federalism, the government of states where these flights will take off and land should be ready to allow civil aviation operations," Puri had tweeted earlier.

While passenger flights were not operational, cargo flights, medical evacuation flights and special flights were being operated. During the recently announced coronavirus lockdown 4.0 guidelines, the MHA had prohibited operation of flights permitting the operations of special flights only.

Meanwhile, according to reports, some airlines had started booking for flights from June onwards. A SpiceJet spokesperson said that international bookings were suspended till June 15 but tickets for domestic were being booked for June onwards. Sources at IndiGo and Vistara said they were taking bookings for domestic flights, as per news agency PTI.

Also read: Lockdown 4.0: Centre awaits states' stance on resuming passenger flights

Also read: Coronavirus lockdown 4.0: Domestic airlines start flight bookings from June