KOLKATA: The Kolkata airport announced on Friday evening that a temporary ban on arriving flights from six cities – Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad, Nagpur, and Chennai - has been extended till July 31.
Airport officials said the instruction from the civil aviation ministry came on Friday evening after the state government had appealed to the ministry to extend the ban owing to the rising number of Covid cases in the state.
The ban was first imposed from July 6 and was scheduled to continue till July 19. With no incoming flights, airlines were quick to suspend outbound movements from Kolkata to these cities on these dates. Most airlines had given refunds of money for tickets booked between July 6 and July 19.
TOI had reported that several airlines had already started selling tickets for travel between these cities from July 20 onwards, which now stands cancelled. Even airport authorities had started preparing for the full resumption of flights from next Monday till the instruction reached them on Friday evening.
“The restriction on arriving flights to #KolkataAirport from 6 cities viz Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Chennai, Nagpur & Ahmedabad has been extended up to July 31” – Kolkata airport tweeted at 7.46pm, confirming the extension of the temporary ban.
Within moments anxious fliers started retweeting the same and started writing on the comment section expressing their concern.
“Why are you behaving so rudely with the same country citizen. Do you know how many problems we are facing?” wrote Dinesh Sahroliya.
Another user, Sourav Kumar Roy questioned: “Does this mean The Vande Bharat flight AI162 from London to Kolkata on July 23 will also not be allowed? Kindly clarify, please. We will again be in great trouble. Please do not cancel this flight.
Airport officials said the instruction from the civil aviation ministry came on Friday evening after the state government had appealed to the ministry to extend the ban owing to the rising number of Covid cases in the state.
The restriction on arriving flights to #KolkataAirport from 6 cities viz Delhi, Mumbai,Pune,Chennai, Nagpur & Ahmed… https://t.co/z4vexnhtab
— Kolkata Airport (@aaikolairport) 1594995365000The ban was first imposed from July 6 and was scheduled to continue till July 19. With no incoming flights, airlines were quick to suspend outbound movements from Kolkata to these cities on these dates. Most airlines had given refunds of money for tickets booked between July 6 and July 19.
TOI had reported that several airlines had already started selling tickets for travel between these cities from July 20 onwards, which now stands cancelled. Even airport authorities had started preparing for the full resumption of flights from next Monday till the instruction reached them on Friday evening.
“The restriction on arriving flights to #KolkataAirport from 6 cities viz Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Chennai, Nagpur & Ahmedabad has been extended up to July 31” – Kolkata airport tweeted at 7.46pm, confirming the extension of the temporary ban.
Within moments anxious fliers started retweeting the same and started writing on the comment section expressing their concern.
“Why are you behaving so rudely with the same country citizen. Do you know how many problems we are facing?” wrote Dinesh Sahroliya.
Another user, Sourav Kumar Roy questioned: “Does this mean The Vande Bharat flight AI162 from London to Kolkata on July 23 will also not be allowed? Kindly clarify, please. We will again be in great trouble. Please do not cancel this flight.
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