Maharashtra Says Won’t Allow Air Travel until May 31 Even as Domestic Flights Set to Restart on Monday

Even as the Centre plans resumption of domestic flights from May 25, a Maharashtra government official on Saturday said the state has not yet amended its May 19 lockdown order allowing only certain kinds of flights.

All scheduled commercial passenger flights have been suspended in India since March 25 when the lockdown was announced.

As per the May 19 order of the state government extending the coronavirus-induced lockdown till the end of the month, all domestic and international air travel, except for domestic medical services, domestic air ambulance and for security purposes as permitted by Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), will continue to remain prohibited across the state.

“We have not yet amended this lockdown order issued on May 19,” said an official when asked about the resumption of passenger flights in Maharashtra.

“The government of Maharashtra has communicated its views to the Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL) that till such time MIAL plans and fine-tunes airport operations, they should initiate minimum possible domestic flights from Maharashtra from May 25, which are purely emergent in nature like for international transfer passengers from these cities, medical emergencies, students, and cases on compassionate grounds only,” said the official.

A Twitter user, who said she had booked a ticket for her mother from Mumbai to Chandigarh on an IndiGo flight, on Saturday asked Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri to provide more clarification after the Maharashtra government’s move not to allow any flights. Passengers have complained about the supposed lack of coordination between the central and state governments.

Puri earlier in the day said India will try to restart a good percentage of international passenger flights before August.

(With inputs from PTI)