'Domestic flight service can resume before lockdown 4.0 ends'
Domestic flights in the country could resume before the end of lockdown 4.0. Union Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri told ET Now that the government is ready to resume flights any day now.
"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," Puri said in an ET Now Webinar.
"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.
The minister reiterated that any decision on the matter will only be taken after deliberation with the states.
He added that India has been able to contain the spread of the virus on account of timely action. "We were one of the first countries to stop flights from China. We have screened about 15 lakh incoming passengers," Puri said.
The flight services in the country have been shut since the last week of March when Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the first spell of nationwide lockdown in light of the coronavirus pandemic. Since then, 3 more spells of lockdown have been inflicted in the country.
Coronavirus cases in the country have crossed one lakh mark. As per latest reports, India has reported 106,000 COVID-19 cases along with 3,300 deaths.
