Direct flight services from Kolkata to Chennai have resumed. Last month, the Kolkata airport had announced that it would not have any flights coming in from Chennai, Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Nagpur and Pune, since the cities were reporting a high number of COVID-19 cases. Since then, there have been no departures to Kolkata from Chennai. As a result, there were no flights arriving from Kolkata to the city.
But on Sunday night, a direct flight from Kolkata arrived in Chennai, and this is likely to continue.
Officials of the Airports Authority of India said that for now, there would be just one direct flight from Kolkata. “There will be many passengers who have been waiting to come for various reasons like treatment or personal emergencies. The flight leaves Kolkata at 9.30 p.m. and arrives here by 11.40 p.m.,” an official said.
So far, there were only flights with stopovers in Bengaluru or Hyderabad, and instead of a two-hour journey, a passenger would end up spending four-five hours travelling. Moreover, the fare was expensive.
At present, though there are no direct flights to Kolkata, passengers continue to go there, taking flights with stopovers in Bengaluru or Guwahati, officials said.
Recently, direct flights to Mumbai, too, resumed from the city, but there have been no direct arrival flights yet. Initially, just one flight to Mumbai resumed, and now there are two — one departing at 1.45 p.m. and another at 2.40 p.m.
Passengers have been waiting for direct flights to resume because when there are stopovers, the fare turns out to be very high. The Chennai airport is looking to operate more flights in the coming days. It will do so only when the State government gives its approval.
