All domestic and international scheduled airline operations have been suspended till 11.59 pm of May 3, the Ministry of Civil Aviation informed on Tuesday shortly after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the extension of the nationwide lockdown.
Following the announcement, Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said “there were good reasons for the Lockdown to be extended till 3rd May”.
He, however, stated that the Government could consider ending the restrictions on domestic and international flights after May 3.
In March, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) had announced the extension of restrictions on domestic and international flights till April 14 in view of the 21-day nationwide lockdown.
However, cargo flights, offshore helicopter operations, medical evacuation flights and special flights permitted by Indian aviation regulator DGCA have been permitted to operate during the lockdown.
The aviation sector has been hit hard by the Coronavirus pandemic. Airlines have either slashed salaries or asked employees to go on a sabbatical without pay.
Meanwhile, domestic carriers, IndiGo and SpiceJet had planned a few changes in its operating procedures such sanitising the aircraft more frequently and filling only 50 per cent seats in airport buses following the lifting of the 21-day lockdown.
Airline major SpiceJet has prepared an extensive blueprint and tested new protocols which will be used as and when operations commence.
Accordingly, the blueprint emphasises on “Social Distancing” norms, right from check-in counters, to the terminal ferry buses and on-board the aircraft.
In the first instance, the airline has marked coaches and aircraft seats with “X” which means “no occupancy”.
Even the aircraft boarding staircase steps are marked properly with special ink which will illuminate at night to set a metre of a distance between passengers.
Further, the airline is training crew to operate in the new environment – on-board and off-board.
Budget airline IndiGo, in view of an impending health scare following the lifting of the lockdown, said it will deep clean aircraft more frequently and stop in-flight meal service briefly.