India’s domestic flights to resume from May 25

Indian domestic flight services would begin from Monday in a “calibrated manner”, laying the ground for gradual resumption of scheduled commercial flight operations.

“Domestic civil aviation operations will recommence in a calibrated manner from Monday. All airports and air carriers are being informed to be ready for operations from May 25. Standard operating procedures (SOPs) for passenger movement are also being separately issued by the Ministry of Civil Aviation,” Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri tweeted.

All domestic passenger flight operations have been suspended for the 54-day lockdown period that began on March 25. However, cargo flights, medical evacuation flights and special flights approved by the aviation regulator DGCA were allowed to operate.

Issuing a set of standard operating procedures, AAI’s directorate of operations said: “Once the lockdown period is declared to be over, airports shall be facilitating limited domestic/international scheduled flights in phases, to start with, may be at 30% per cent capacity to facilitate required social distancing. Airline operations may be limited to tier-l cities and major tier-ll cities initially.

The Centre is looking at the option of making the Aarogya Setu app mandatory for flyers to have it installed on their phones while taking any flight.