Domestic flights to different cities will resume once the State governments express their willingness to open airports, Minister for Civil Aviation Hardeep Puri said on Tuesday.
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“It is not upto @MoCA_GoI or centre alone to decide on resuming domestic flights. In the spirit of cooperative federalism, the govt of states where these flights will take off & land should be ready to allow civil aviation operations,” said the Minister in a message posted on Twitter on Tuesday.
While the standard operating procedure for domestic flights was yet to be framed, the comment gives airlines a hint of what to expect in the days to come. Commercial flight operations remain suspended at least until May 31, and only some flights have been allowed domestically to help citizens repatriated from different countries travel from major airports hubs in Delhi, Mumbai, etc.
This is also in line with guidelines prepared by the Airports Authority of India for reopening its aerodromes across the country, which said, “flight schedule may be cleared on City Pair basis, so the origin and destination airports are open fully from lockdown situation.” Railways too were operating to and from those cities that permitted train services, until the protocol was amended on Tuesday.
