Not up to Centre alone to resume passenger flights, says Hardeep Puri

Only cargo flights, medical evacuation flights and special flights approved by the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) have been allowed to operate during the lockdown.

Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Tuesday said the Centre alone cannot unilaterally decide on resuming passenger flights unless state governments allow these services “in the spirit of cooperative federalism”.

Passenger flights have been suspended in India since March 25 when the first phase of lockdown was imposed to check the spread of coronavirus that has infected more than one lakh people and killed more than 3,100 people in India so far. (PTI)

“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,” Puri said in a tweet.

Passenger flights have been suspended in India since March 25 when the first phase of lockdown was imposed to check the spread of coronavirus that has infected more than one lakh people and killed more than 3,100 people in India so far.

Only cargo flights, medical evacuation flights and special flights approved by the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) have been allowed to operate during the lockdown.

Last month, the DGCA directed airlines to refrain from resuming online ticket bookings after Puri told them to restart the process only after a decision is taken to end the bar on domestic and international flight operations.

Earlier this month, the government carried out a massive evacuation exercise to bring back thousands of Indians stranded in foreign countries.