New Delhi, May 28 The re-commencement of flight services to West Bengal on Thursday gave a boost to the overall domestic operations and passenger numbers in India.
Passenger flight services now connect all the major metro cities amongst other destinations in India.
Bengal had barred flight services till May 28.
Besides, connecting all the major metros, the addition of West Bengal also gave a boost to the overall flight and passenger numbers in India.
Till 5 p.m. on Thursday, airports across the country handled a total of 677 aircraft movements with 55,666 passenger footfalls.
On Twitter, Union Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said that 367 departures and 310 arrivals took place till 5 p.m. on Thursday.
The Centre has allowed limited passenger flights — about one-third of the summer schedule — to operate between metros and other destinations from May 25.
Passenger air services were suspended on March 25 due to the nationwide lockdown to check the spread of Covid-19.
On Wednesday, till 5 p.m., 354 departures and 288 arrivals were reported, ferrying almost 48,000 people.
As per Thursday’s schedule, 147 scheduled departures and 145 arrivals were planned from Terminal 3 in the national capital.
Similarly, Mumbai’s CSMIA saw a total of 50 scheduled flights, which included 25 departures and the same number of arrivals.
“Passenger numbers continue to rise as a number of issues like confusion over quarantine norms and ticket refunds are being sorted out,” Nishant Pitti, CEO and co-founder of EaseMyTrip.com, told IANS.
“Teething issues are sorting out, things are getting better with time, further change in refund policy of IndiGo and AirAsia India have built trust among customers again, so now 10-15 per cent customers are boking tickets of future travel as well.”
In another development, some passengers on IndiGo flights have tested Covid-19 positive.
These passengers include three individuals, who traveled on ‘6E 955’ from Delhi to Jammu on May 26, while six were ferried onboard ‘6E 6992’ from Bengaluru to Coimbatore on May 27 and another two used the ‘6E 908’ service from Delhi to Coimbatore on May 27 too.
The development comes a day after another airline major SpiceJet confirmed that two passengers, who had travelled from Ahmedabad to Guwahati via Delhi on May 25. have tested Covid-19 positive
Meanwhile, the Karnataka government has requested the Union Civil Aviation Ministry to reduce the number of flights, emanating from Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan to Karnataka, in view of the high number of Covid-19 cases prevalent there.
