E-Paper
Air operations smooth on Day 2, 1 flyer tests +ve
Around 41,673 passengers had flown until Tuesday evening, civil aviation minister Hardeep Puri said, the day after the suspension imposed for the coronavirus lockdown ended.
After the resumption of domestic flights the previous day following a two-month suspension was marred by confusion and cancellations amid the reluctance of some states to allow inbound travel,operations on Tuesday were smooth, with airports handling 325 departures and 283 arrivals till the evening civil aviation minister Hardeep Puri said.
Around 41,673 passengers had flown until Tuesday evening, Puri said, the day after the suspension imposed for the coronavirus lockdown ended.
“Airports are abuzz, and passengers are back in the air. Operations have started in Andhra Pradesh from today. These numbers are all set to soar higher,” the minister said, adding that a final report on the how the day’s flight operations went will be prepared after details come in at Tuesday midnight.
On Monday, more than half the expected 1,100 flights had to be cancelled as airlines had to reconcile to the varying public health rules of various states and rework their flight schedules. According to civil aviation ministry’s data, 428 flights departed on Monday ferrying 30,550 passengers. There were 404 arrival flights, which means 24 flights had departed just before midnight and would have arrived on Tuesday morning.
The maximum number of flights took off from Karnataka with 67 flights ferrying 5,602 passengers of which 60 flights were from Bengaluru alone.
The states agreed with the Centre on Sunday to allow a graded reopening of flight operations after putting in place local measures to quarantine and isolate passengers to avoid a spiralling of Covid-19 infections. The number of flights operating across airports were capped, with the Centre allowing only a third of domestic operations.
Flights to and from West Bengal will resume on May 28 and those operating from Andhra Pradesh were scheduled to commence from Tuesday while Maharashtra allowed a limited number of flights to depart and arrive in Mumbai.
According to the civili aviation ministry, 38 flights departed from Maharashtra on Monday, ferrying 5,124 passengers; they included 24 flights from Mumbai. One hundred and eleven flights took off from Delhi with 8,168 passengers.
Concerns over the possible spread of the coronavirus disease following the resumption of domestic travel have been rife. On Monday, a passenger flying on an Indigo flight from Chennai to Coimbatore was found Covid-19 positive.
“We received confirmation from the Coimbatore airport doctor that a passenger who travelled on 6E 381 from Chennai to Coimbatore on 25th May evening, has tested positive for COVID-19. He is currently quarantined at ESI state medical facility at Coimbatore. He was seated on-board the aircraft with all precautionary measures including face mask, face shield and gloves, as were the other passengers. Additionally, no one else was seated in his vicinity, significantly reducing the possibility of transmission,” Indigo said in a statement on Tuesday.
“All our aircraft are regularly sanitised as a standard operating procedure, and the aircraft operating this flight was also immediately disinfected as per protocol. The operating crew has been grounded for 14 days and we are in the process of notifying other passengers as per the government guidelines, to ensure safety of our passengers and staff,” it added.
The two-month suspension of flights has already left the civil aviation sector, globally and in India, reeling. According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA) the airline industry’s global debt could rise to $550 billion by the year-end. That’s a $120 billion increase over debt levels at the start of 2020.
“A tough future is ahead of us. Containing COVID-19 and surviving the financial shock is just the first hurdle. Post-pandemic control measures will make operations more costly. Fixed costs will have to be spread over fewer travellers. And investments will be needed to meet our environmental targets. On top of all that, airlines will need to repay massively increased debts arising from the financial relief. After surviving the crisis, recovering to financial health will be the next challenge for many airlines,” said Alexandre de Juniac, IATA’s director general and CEO.
