After many anxious moments India resumed civil passenger flight services with a reduced numbers on Monday, exactly two-months after it had suspended these operations due to the outbreak of Covid-19.However, not each state has given permission to resume air travel which intensified the situation of perplexion among passengers. This morning, passengers started to queue up outside the airports from the previous night to catch early morning flights back home.
Civil Aviation minister Hardeep Singh Puri said in a tweet on Monday morning, “Today, we restart domestic flights. India's civil aviation is always on the forefront.”
However, several passengers waiting for their flights in Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad and other airports complained that their flights were cancelled without any prior notice.
Around 80 flights flying in and out of Delhi Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport have been cancelled.
Passengers of an Air India Bengaluru-Hyderabad flight said their flight has been cancelled, without prior notice from the airline. According to an eminent media house, the passengers said, "Only when our boarding passes were scanned at the airport entry we were told that boarding has been cancelled. We don't know what to do now."
Another passenger at Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji International airport said that her Air India flight to Delhi has been cancelled without prior notice.
“My flight AI 515 from Hyderabad to Bengaluru got cancelled without prior notice, and in your website it still shows it’s on time,'” another passenger Mujeeb complained on the micro-blogging site.
Some claimed that the national carrier informed passengers of cancellations after they had reached the airport.
“Absolutely horrible from @airindiain. They told me the flight has been cancelled after I reached the airport saying that we can only notify two hours before the take off. How does this make sense when government is asking us to reach the airport two hours in advance?” Neelabh Pandey said.
Till 9 am on Monday, 5 flights arrived at Bengaluru's Kempegowda International airport, 17 flights departed and 9 flights were cancelled. The first flight from Lucknow took off for Ahmedabad on Monday morning. Another flight from Bengaluru to Ranchi took off at 5.15 am with 173 passengers and 3 infants.
Confusion continued till late night before the resumption of flights over the number of flights being operated from different airports and whether the state governments such as Maharashtra and West Bengal, who had raised objections to resuming flights, will operate flights.
Maharashtra finally agreed on Sunday night to resume flights from Mumbai but with a reduced number. The government has allowed 25 flights to fly out and 25 others to fly in to Mumbai amid the coronavirus crisis which has hit Maharashtra the hardest. West Bengal, which is dwindling with the devastation caused by Cyclone Amphan, has said it will resume flight operations from May 28.
Passengers across airports are being screened at the gates by personnel wearing face shields and masks. Baggage is also undergoing thermal screening at the airports. Passengers onboard a Delhi-Bhubaneswar Vistara flight were seen wearing face shields as a precautionary measure against coronavirus.
Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said on Monday morning, “We brought back more than 30,000 stranded Indians on Vande Bharat flights since 6 May 2020. We flew 917 tons of medical & essential cargo on Lifeline UDAN flights since 26 March 2020. Today, we restart domestic flights. India's civil aviation is always on the forefront.”
Passengers have been queuing up outside nodal airports such as Mumbai and Delhi from the previous night to make sure they don’t miss their flights. Most of these fliers were stranded away from home in different cities.
After objecting to resuming flights in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic, Tamil Nadu government has allowed passenger operations at the airports in Chennai and three other cities and notified guidelines. Tamil Nadu has said passengers will have to undergo 14-days home quarantine and an e-pass for entry.
However, Vijayawada and Vizag airports in Andhra Pradesh will not operate any domestic flights on Monday but services will begin from Tuesday.
Bookings had opened for around 1,050 domestic flights for Monday but the revised schedule has led to cancellation of several flights leaving hundreds of passengers disappointed. The airlines were allowed to operate one-third of their capacity.