Domestic passenger flight operations to resume from May 25

More than two months after the Centre suspended the operations of all commercial flights due to the COVID-19 pandemic, domestic passenger flights are set to resume in a calibrated manner, Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said on Wednesday (May 20).

In a tweet, Puri said all airports and airlines had been informed to be prepared for the operations of commercial flights.

On May 19, Puri said it was not up to the Ministry of Civil Aviation or the Central government to make a decision on the resumption of domestic flights. In the spirit of cooperative federalism, the governments of states, where the flights would take off and land should be ready to allow civil-aviation operations, he said in another tweet.

Since March 25, all scheduled commercial passenger flights have remained suspended in the country after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a lockdown to curb the spread of COVID-19.

However, the Ministry of Civil Aviation had been planning to resume flight operations in the last few weeks.

On May 11, a joint team of officials from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, Bureau of Civil Aviation Security, Airports Authority of India, Delhi International Airport Limited and the Central Industrial Security Force visited the Delhi airport and took a detailed note of the preparedness there

Reports suggested that it would be mandatory for travelers to have the Aarogya Setu app on their smartphones and wear face mask cover, besides undergoing screening at airports.