Coronavirus pandemic: Indigo to cancel flights between Delhi-Istanbul, Chennai-Kuala Lumpur till March 31

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Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA )on Tuesday announced that IndiGo will be cancelling its flights on Delhi-Istanbul route and Chennai-Kuala Lumpur route from March 18 to March 31, as the aviation regulator has restricted international traffic from Turkey and Malaysia.

"As per the DGCA advisory to restrict international traffic from Turkey and Malaysia, IndiGo will be cancelling its flights between Delhi-Istanbul & Chennai-Kuala Lumpur from March 18, until March 31," DGCA said.

Earlier today, DGCA issued a notification directing all airlines not to allow passengers from coronavirus-affected countries prohibited by the government to board the plane.

"Travel of passengers from member countries of the European Union, the European Free Trade Association, Turkey and the United Kingdom to India is prohibited with effect from 18th March 2020. No airline shall board a passenger from these nations to India with effect from 1200 GMT on 18th March 2020. The airline shall enforce this at the port of initial departure," read the circular.

The airline has already cancelled flights between Bangalore-Kuala Lumpur until March 31, 2020 and Delhi-Kuala Lumpur until April 30, 2020.

"These are purely temporary and precautionary measures. We understand that these measures will cause inconvenience to our customers and we will be refunding the full amount to the impacted passengers," the airline stated in a press release.

More than 7,100 people have died globally till now due to COVID-19. Many countries across the world have partially or completely sealed their borders, causing major airlines across the world to ground most of their planes.

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