India plans to commence international flights before August

India will try to restart a good number of international flights before August, civil aviation minister Hardeep Singh Puri has said.

“I can’t put a date on it (restarting international flights). But if somebody says can it be done by August or September, my response would be why not earlier, depending on the situation.”

“I am fully hopeful that before August or September, we will try to start a good percentage of international civil aviation operations, if not complete international operations,” he said.

“We must have a more ambitious goal. Why not start them by mid-June or June-end or in July.”

All scheduled commercial passenger flights have been suspended in India since March 25 when the government imposed a lockdown to contain the coronavirus pandemic.

Meanwhile, domestic flights will start operating from May 25. The Ministry of Civil Aviation has said it would implement a fare cap for domestic air travel for three months citing a possible surge in airfares due to pent-up demand.