First flight takes off from Chennai airport as operations resume after two months

It left for Delhi at 6.35 a.m. with 116 passengers

With 116 passengers the first flight to Delhi departed from Chennai airport on Monday, as domestic flight services resumed in the State after two months of lockdown. The flight left the city airport at 6.35 a.m.

The first flight from Delhi too arrived at 8.15 a.m.

Chennai airport will handle only 35 flights on Monday, as against 500 movements that it would usually have before the lockdown. There will be 16 flights arriving and 19 departing from the city airport. The State government had fixed limitations on the arrivals and announced that only 25 flights can land here.

For those arriving in the State, since TN e-pass will be mandatory, a counter has been set up to issue these passes in the arrival hall which will function for a couple days alone. After that, passengers have to register only through TN e-pass portal to get a pass and enter the State.

On Sunday night, after a long wait, the State government finally allowed the domestic operations to begin in the city airport. It instructed that asymptomatic passengers who arrive will have to be on a 14-day home quarantine. If a passenger is found to have symptoms on arrival, then they would be taken to the hospital for further testing procedures.