Domestic flights to resume operations from May 25: Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri

Domestic flights will resume operations from May 25, 2020 in a calibrated manner. This was announced by Union Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on May 20, 2020.

The Minister confirmed that all the airports and air carriers are being informed to begin their operations from Monday. The Ministry will issue the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for the same separately. 

Domestic civil aviation operations will recommence in a calibrated manner from Monday 25th May 2020.

All airports & air carriers are being informed to be ready for operations from 25th May.

SOPs for passenger movement are also being separately issued by @MoCA_GoI.

— Hardeep Singh Puri (@HardeepSPuri) May 20, 2020

Speaking recently on resumption of domestic flights, the Civil Aviation Minister had said that he was personally aware of the hardship that the people were being subjected to due to the suspension of flights.

He said that as far as the Ministry of Civil Aviation was concerned and all the stakeholders of the civil aviation sector including the different airlines, airports and the  Airports Authority of India, (AAI), they all have been ready to resume domestic flight operations since over a week. Puri asserted that all the stakeholders have been absolutely ready to restart domestic civil aviation with even a little bit of notice. 

Background

All flight operations including domestic and international were suspended by the Indian government since the first complete lockdown was imposed on March 25, 2020 to contain the spread of coronavirus. The ban was extended with each lockdown extension and recently on May 17, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) extended the ban on domestic and international passenger flights  yet again til May 31st.

The extension came after the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) issued guidelines extending the nationwide lockdown till May 31, 2020. Though lockdown 4.0 was imposed with certain ease in restrictions, the Ministry's orders stated that all domestic and international air travel of passengers will continue to remain prohibited till May 31 with the exception of domestic medical services and air ambulance and the airlines operating under Vande Bharat mission to bring back Indians stranded abroad .