Air India Cancelled 93 Fights Till May 31

New Delhi: Air India has cancelled around 92 flights scheduled between May 28 and May 31 as states have restricted the number of services their airports will allow during lockdown 4.0. However, there will be no extra charge levied on the flyers if they want to reschedule their flights till August 24, 2020, Air India has said. After a gap of two months, domestic flight services began their operations from May 25. Union civil aviation minister Hardeep Singh Puri had earlier said that though the ministry and the airports were prepared to resume the operations from May 15, the states were not ready to handle the inflow of the passengers coming from other states. As several states initially opposed to resuming operations questions have been raised whether states were not consulted before announcing the resumption of flight operations. The minister has confirmed that states were on board initially, but then some states took a step back given the rise in the number of the COVID-19 cases. States were also late in framing the standard operation protocols for quarantining the incoming passengers. With West Bengal resuming its flight services from today — May 28 — all states are now connected via domestic flight operations — but in a restricted number. West Bengal, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu — the three states that objected to the resumption of the services — have largely curtailed the capacity of the airports. For example, Kolkata airport is only allowing 10 arrivals and 10 departures per day. Mumbai and Chennai airports are allowing only 25 arrivals and departures. As a result, several scheduled flights had to be cancelled as there is no slot.