Minister of Civil Aviation, Hardeep Singh Puri has dropped a big hint on the possible date of commencement of international flights in and out of the country. The Minister, in a Facebook live interaction, revealed that the government sees August as the time when they can restart the service and has said that the government will make an effort to start a fair percentage of international passenger flights to take travelers looking to travel outside India or come to India before August. “We will try to start a good percentage of international passenger flights before August”, news agency PTI has quoted Minister Puri as saying.
However, the Minister refused the efforts to link the commencement of domestic flights and ongoing lockdown. He said that there is no contradiction between lockdown and resuming domestic flights in the country. “There's no contradiction between domestic flights beginning from May 25 and lockdown in India being imposed till May 31”, PTI reported him as saying.
Echoing the same sentiment as Minister of Civil Aviation on the issue of resumption of flight services in the country, the CEO of Delhi International Airport Limited, Videh Jaipuriar has said that the move to restart the domestic flight service is essential as the people now must learn to live with the Coronavirus. He raised the importance of flying as a mode of travel and said that it is the safest mode to go places amid these times.
On the Delhi Airport’s preparedness before passengers can assume their journey is safe from contagion, Jaipuriar has said that the airport has taken measures to avoid contactless boarding of passengers. He suggested air travelers bring along with them- their printed boarding pass or use scan-and-fly kiosks at the terminal.
On the issue of imposing a quarantine on people who will opt for air travel, Minister Puri has strongly suggested against it but only if passengers fulfill one condition- having green status on the Aarogya Setu app.
He said that there is no need for passengers to go under quarantine if the app shows a green status which means the person registered with the device has no travel history to any containment zone or had no contact with any contaminated person.
He said that there is no need for passengers to go under quarantine if the app shows a green status which means the person registered with the device has no travel history to any containment zone or had no contact with any contaminated person.