Domestic flights start in India |
532 domestic passenger flights took off from various parts of India on 25th May as COVID-19 lockdown was relaxed. Various airports resumed operations. In a tweet, Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Puri informed that 39,231 passengers boarded the flights on the first day of operation. One-third of the total domestic commercial flights operated after almost 61 days of suspension of their operations as a measure to control spread of infection of COVID-19. While many of these flights had rows of empty seats, thousands of flyers were left agonising over roughly the same number of flight cancellations. The comeback for Domestic air travel was not smooth though as many flights cancelled on short notice leaving hundreds of flyers stranded at the airports. The mess was a result of lack of coordination between the civil aviation ministry and states, as many states are still to open its airports for these flights. The schedule had been finalised after talks between the aviation ministry and some states ended late Sunday night with the decision that some airports like Kolkata, Bagdogra, Vijayawada, and Vishakhpatnam will open only later this week while others like Mumbai, Chennai and Hyderabad would have a strict cap on the number of flights. Airlines started informing passengers about cancellations or changes in flight timings only around midnight on 24th May.
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