Aviation services on path to normalcy

Mumbai operates 44 flights out of the allocated 50, catering to 4,224 passengers

Aviation services in the country stabilised considerably on Tuesday with Mumbai airport operating 44 flights out of the allocated 50 flights and catering to 4,224 passengers travelling to 13 destinations.

Six airlines operated a total of 22 departures and 22 arrivals. “Mumbai airport saw today a total of 4,224 passengers, which include 3,114 passengers at departures and 1,110 at arrivals. The highest passenger load capacity was seen on the Delhi route. The first flight departed to Ranchi at 6.30 am while the first flight arrived at 8.20 am from Lucknow. Both the flights were operated by IndiGo,” a Mumbai International Airport Ltd spokesperson said.

On Monday, the airport had operated 47 flights with a different distribution of sectors. On Tuesday, IndiGo got the maximum share of the sectors operating 21 pair of flights to and fro to Ahmedabad, Bhubaneshwar, Dehradun, Guwahati, Lucknow, Patna, Ranchi, Nagpur. IndiGo and Vistara operated two pairs of flights to Delhi. Air India and Air Asia India, which had operated two flights to and from Kochi and Delhi on Monday, were allocated Bengaluru and Delhi sectors on Tuesday. Low-cost carrier SpiceJet operated flights to and from Bengaluru, Delhi, Varanasi, Patna, Gorakhpur. Alliance Air operated the lone flight to Diu.

Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri had claimed on May 25 that a total of 832 flights were operated by all airlines and a total of 58,318 people were flown to their destinations.

While aviation experts have been sceptical of resumption of 33 per cent of domestic flights, the reopening of airports across the country received its first setback after a passenger on IndiGo 6E 381 Chennai-Coimbatore tested positive after tests carried out at Coimbatore airport on Monday evening.

In a statement, IndiGo said, “We received confirmation from the Coimbatore airport doctor that a passenger who travelled on 6E 381 from Chennai to Coimbatore on May 25 evening, has tested positive for Covid-19. He is currently quarantined at ESI state medical facility at Coimbatore. He was seated on-board the aircraft with all precautionary measures including face mask, face shield and gloves, as were the other passengers. Additionally, no one else was seated in his vicinity, significantly reducing the possibility of transmission.”

The airline said as per the protocols for airlines, the aircraft operating this flight was immediately disinfected. “The operating crew has been home quarantined for 14 days and we are in the process of notifying other passengers as per the government guidelines, to ensure safety of our passengers and staff,” the airline said. Tamil Nadu, which has the second highest Covid-19 cases after Maharashtra, has also limited its domestic flights to 25 arrivals and departures and has included an e-pass for entry and 14-day home quarantine in its standard operating procedures.

Aviation experts have criticised the civil aviation ministry’s attempt to resume domestic passenger flight operations at this scale. Jitender Bhargava, former Air India executive director and author of The Descent of Air India, said prior to the announcement of resumption of flights, the civil aviation minister had clearly indicated that all the states were on board, yet why they were not taken on board is a mystery. Different states have implemented differing sets of SOPs at their airports to restrict Covid-19 spread.

Bhargava said another reason why the domestic flights should have resumed gradually was the huge demand destruction in aviation sector seen globally. He said as seen on Monday, airlines are not able to fill the seats and the passenger load factors are low.