Civil Aviation Minister says reports of flights resumption after April 14 as 'mere speculation'

Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri has said that the government is yet to take any decision on resumption of flight services both on domestic and international sectors. He described a news agency reports that the government is likely to allow domestic and international slights in a staggered manner after the 21-day lockdown ends on April 14, 2020, as mere speculation. The aviation sector has been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic.

The Minister in a tweet on Sunday said, "News about the resumption of passenger flights in a staggered manner from 15 April is mere speculation. The correct position is spelt out in my tweet of 2nd April 2020."

On April 2, 2020, Puri had tweeted, "The current lockdown on both the domestic and international passenger flights is till April 15. A decision to restart the flights after this period remains to be taken. If required, we will have to access the situation on a case by case basis."

All major airlines except Air India are taking domestic bookings for dates post-April 14. Air India is taking bookings for dates post-April 30 only. Government has imposed a 21-day lockdown from March 25 to curb the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.

On March 22, India announced suspending international flights for a week. It was later extended until April 15 coinciding with the lockdown to break the chain of transmission of coronavirus that has now infected almost 4,000 people in the country. Earlier that month, India had suspended most visas for foreigners and stopped flights to a clutch of countries.

Consequently, all domestic and international commercial passenger flights have been suspended for this time period. However, cargo flights, offshore helicopter operations, medical evacuation flights and special flights permitted by Indian aviation regulator DGCA are permitted to operate during this lockdown.