New Delhi: As India is preparing for lockdown 4.0 with a plan to resume movements in a staggered manner, reports claimed that Air India will operate special domestic flights from different cities between May 19 and June 2 to help passengers reach home. The flights, according to a TOI report, will connect Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Kochi, Jaipur etc.
However, the carrier is not seeing this as the beginning of the domestic operations as yet. According to the report, senior Air India officials are considering this as part of Air India’s evacuation operations that have been going on. This is just the second phase of the operations where domestic passengers can also be included. Insiders said the government agreed to the plan of ferrying domestic passengers. But the final nod from the ministry is awaited. The notification will soon be issued, said the report. Passengers will have to book tickets online.
The development comes at a time when the New Delhi office of Air India has been sealed as one of the staff members tested positive for coronavirus. Earlier, it was reported that five pilots tested positive. But the second round of tests declared them negative.
The resumption of Air India’s domestic flight services is on the lines of the train services being started by the Indian railways. This is also to facilitate passengers who have been brought from outside India to reach their home states as many of them are at the destination airports. In the absence of any domestic connection, they are not being able to return to their home states.
Air India plan
Flights from Delhi to these cities
Jaipur, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Amritsar, Kochi, Ahmedabad, Vijayawada, Gaya, Lucknow.
Flights from Mumbai to these cities
Visakhapatnam, Kochi, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Vijayawada.
Flights from Hyderabad
Delhi, Mumbai
Flights from Bengaluru
Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad.