ET Now Webinar: Domestic flights can resume before lockdown 4.0 ends, asserts Hardeep Singh Puri

Domestic, international flight operations have been suspended by the government ever since lockdown was imposed in March to control the spread of novel coronavirus. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Sunday extended the ban on domestic and international passenger flight operations till May 31. 

The decision came after the government extended the nationwide lockdown till May 31. The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said in its guidelines that all domestic and international air travel of passengers except for domestic medical services and air ambulance, and for security purposes will remain prohibited till May 31.

ET Now in its webinar invited Union Minister for Civil Aviation Hardeep Singh Puri to discuss resumption of flight services and more. When asked about how soon can one see resumption of domestic flight services, Puri stated that he is personally aware of the hardships that people have been subjected to. 

He said, "As far as the Ministry of Civil Aviation is concerned and as far as all the stakeholders in the civil aviation ecosystem including Airports Authority of India, (AAI), airports in different cities, air carriers, are concerned, we have been ready to resume domestic civil aviation now for the last one week or so."

"We are absolutely ready and we could start domestic civil aviation at any time with a little bit of notice. Obviously, if we get the green signal today, it will take two or three days for the airlines to open bookings and for us to calibrate the number of flights we can start with," he added.

Source: https://www.timesnownews.com

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