25 flights cancelled on second day of flight operations after shutdown

At least 25 flights, scheduled to arrive at or depart from the Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport, were cancelled on Tuesday, the second day of the airport resuming domestic flight operations after the nationwide ban on domestic flights was lifted on Monday. The airport operated 137 departures and 140 arrivals on Tuesday, officials said.

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Domestic flights had been suspended since March 25, when a nationwide lockdown to contain the spread of Covid-19 was announced.

On Monday, when the Delhi airport resumed its functioning after two months, it handled 118 arrivals and 125 departures, with a total of 82 flights being cancelled. The flights were cancelled due to a multitude of reasons as airlines resumed operations across India. Instead of following the national guidelines issued by the Centre for all passengers, many states set their own rules: Karnataka requires mandatory institutional quarantine for passengers from worst-affected states, while Punjab and Meghalaya have made a swab test mandatory for arrivals.

A senior officer from the airport, on the condition of anonymity, said, “The total operations increased on Tuesday significantly and number of flights cancelled remained lower than the first day. All measures of ensuring adequate deployment of staff to assist passengers and to make sure that safety guidelines are followed are in place. The situation is expected to improve.”

The number of passengers stranded at the airport also remained low on Tuesday and there were fewer complaints from passengers about flight cancellations with no prior information, the officer added.

Many passengers arriving at the Delhi airport also took to social media to contact the airport operator about availability of cabs.

In response, the Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL) ha tweeted: “prepaid taxi services are operational at Delhi Airport”.

The operator also told one of its passengers in a tweet, “You can avail authorized cab services like Meru, Mega, Ola, Uber, WTI and Carzonrent cabs to/from Delhi Airport.”

In another tweet to outstation passengers, DIAL said, “taxi services are available at Delhi Airport for outstation destinations. Passengers may need to present an e-pass to the authorities of the destination state. For more info, kindly get in touch with the respective government authority.”

App-based cab service provider, Ola, said on Tuesday it has resumed its services at the Indira Gandhi International Airport, along with 21 other airports.

In a statement, Ola said that customers need to wear masks, AC will remain switched off, with windows open, only two passengers will be allowed in a car and they’ll load, unload their luggage themselves. Only cashless payments will be accepted, Ola said.