New Delhi: Although plans of making all flight services functional from April 1 have been postponed, Civil Aviation minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Saturday said the government is not planning to curtail flight services further amid the second wave of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
“No intention of curtailing [flight services]. Domestic flights were halted in March 2020 and resumed on May 25. We have been further reopening them. Our intention was to open them 100 per cent with the onset of the summer schedule from April 1 since we are at 80 per cent right now. We can’t open it 100 per cent now due to the second spike of Covid,” news agency ANI quoted him as saying.
Airport authorities have been instructed to blacklist passengers who fail to adhere to COVID-appropriate behaviour, the minister said. “I have told the airport operators and airlines to passengers who do not wear masks and fail to maintain social distancing norms into a no flyers list,” the report further added.