International flight may resume soon; Top government sources have told that the target to resume International flights in India is July. Domestic flight operations resumed in India on May 25 after over two Months of remaining shut due to the Nationwide lockdown.
However, several factors like the lockdown in metro cities and the ban imposed by various countries on the entry of foreigners need to be addressed before resuming international passenger flights in India, Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said today.
“Numerous citizens have been approaching us to restart international flights. Several factors need to be addressed. Many international destinations are not allowing incoming passenger traffic, except for their own citizens or diplomats,” Mr. Puri said on Twitter.
The minister said: “MHA (Ministry of Home Affairs) guidelines for lockdown 5.0 have further opened up inter and intra-state travel, and will facilitate calibrated reopening of the sector. As we move towards the critical mass of 50-60% operation of domestic flights, our ability to resume international operations will also and we are hopefull that, International flight may resume.”
Indian carriers operated a total of 3,370 domestic passenger flights till May 31 — 428 on May 25, 445 on May 26, 460 on May 27, 494 on May 28, 513 on May 29 and 529 on May 30.
During the pre-lockdown period, Indian airports handled around 3,000 daily domestic flights, aviation industry sources said.
In February, around 4.12 lakh passengers traveled daily through domestic flights in India, according to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) data.
Meanwhile, India witnessed the biggest jump in daily coronavirus count with 9,304 people testing positive for the novel virus in the last 24 hours. The total number of coronavirus cases in the country increased to 216,919, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu continued to record a high number of coronavirus cases while Delhi saw the biggest spike in COVID-19 count on in last 24 hours.
The number of active coronavirus cases increased to 106,737. On the brighter side, over 1 lakh people recovered from the disease.
