Anxious passengers wait for flights to resume from today

With state govt and Centre differ on allowing airlines to fly, many are in a state of dilemma over status

The tussle between state government and central government over whether to allow air travel or not has put many fliers in a state of dilemma. These people, who had been in an anxious state throughout Sunday, heaved a sigh of relief after airlines affirmed that they will be operational “despite resistance” from the state government.

While the central government had announced that flights will be operational from May 25 last week, the state government was contemplating delaying it due to the huge number of active cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Maharashtra, particularly Mumbai and Pune. After a long tussle, it was finally declared on Sunday that some airlines will be allowed to fly.

Disha Dethe, a passenger who is supposed to travel from Pune to Amritsar on May 27, was told by customer care service of SpiceJet that the flight will be operational and she can book a flight back to Pune as well.

Speaking to Mirror, Dethe said, “I have a flight scheduled to Amritsar for which I have paid Rs 9,000 for a oneway ticket. As of Sunday evening, I have been told by the service desk that flights will run and need not worry about it. However, no further information has been provided. I have been in touch with them throughout the day.”

Tanya Jais, another passenger who is supposed to travel from Pune to Lucknow, said, “I have been in a confused state all day as the state government’s had announced that that they will not allow flights to operate. I paid a total of Rs12,000 to fly to Lucknow. I have been told by IndiGo that the flight will be operational and I hope there will be no more confusion further.”

Keyshav K, who booked a ticket to return from Noida to Pune, said, “There has been no official communication about what is going to happen about the flight is going to allowed to take off. We’ve been continuously trying to get in touch with them. After paying a huge amount, anyone would be worried and the flights should take extra care as they have to let us know about the status from time to time.”

We are gearing up for operations from Monday onwards and are ready for it. We will abide by AAI guidelines—Kuldip Singh, Pune airport director

Several passengers are worried as they had splurged a little more than usual on flight tickets to return to their respective hometowns or bring back a family member who was stuck in another city.

A statement issued by IndiGo said, “As per the government announcement made today, we will be resuming flight operations from Monday, May 25, 2020, in a phased manner. We are fully prepared with safety measures with respect to COVID-19 across all our passengers and CarGo interfaces during their journey with us. We will share further details and guidelines for passengers, in line with the advisory from the authorities over the next few days.”

Pune airport director Kuldip Singh told Mirror, “We are gearing up for operations from Monday onwards and are ready for it. We will be abiding by the guidelines issued by Airports Authority of India and have ensured safety, sanitation and social distancing while the flights are operating from Pune airport.”