Domestic flights to resume from May 25: Hardeep Singh Puri

NEW DELHI: Domestic flights will resume in a gradual manner from May 25, that is next Monday, civil aviation minister Hardeep Singh Puri said on Wednesday.
The minister took to Twitter to make the announcement: “Domestic civil aviation operations will recommence in a calibrated manner from Monday May 25, 2020. All airports & air carriers are being informed to be ready for operations from May 25th. SOPs for passenger movement are also being separately issued by aviation ministry.”

The Airports Authority of India (AAI) has finalised its standard operating procedure for restoring schedule commercial flights as soon as the go-ahead for the game comes from the government.
The state-run authority, which handles air traffic control services across India, expects 30% scheduled flights to get operational in the beginning between big cities and then the same will gradually be scaled up. To begin with, flights could operate within a certain time with the same getting increased as things unfold.
While the standard operating procedure are awaited, the AAI on May 15 tweeted that downloading and registering on the Aarogya Setu App, doing web check-in and taking a print out of boarding card to airport will be mandatory to fly when schedule commercial flights begin shortly.
“With the possibility of resumption of domestic flights soon, AAI has released some steps that must be followed so passengers are fully geared up while travelling. Wear a mask, carry a hand sanitiser, keep documents handy and register on Aarogya Setu App,” AAI had tweeted.

The same day (May 15), the Union health ministry issued an advisory for air travellers which asked them to wash or sanitise hands frequently, wear face cover at all time during travel and also download the Aarogya Setu App.
The aviation ministry had earlier issued a draft standard operating procedure which spoke of a green light on the Aarogya App being necessary to fly. However, this green-light-on-app proposal is still in draft stage and no formal decision has been taken on it yet.
Aviation authorities are preparing for resuming schedule passengers flights soon with a limited start of domestic operations. Passengers have been allowed to carry 350 ml liquid hand sanitiser on board aircraft with them to sanitise hands frequently till up to August 13, 2020, for now. Also the requirement of CISF stamping boarding cards has been done away with to minimise contact and control spread of corona.