Union Minister for Civil Aviation Hardeep Singh Puri on May 20 announced that domestic civil aviation operations will recommence in the country in a calibrated manner from May 25 onward.
Standard operating protocols (SOPs) for passenger movement is also being separately issued by the Ministry of Civil Aviation, he added.
Only a small percentage of the total number of domestic flights will be operated at first and the number of flights will be increased later, depending on the initial experience, Puri told news agency ANI.
He said that the option of keeping the middle seats on flights vacant is not a viable one.
"Even if you keep the middle seat vacant, you'll still have a situation where the prescribed distance for social distancing isn't followed. If you were to do it then you'd have to hike up the price of airline tickets by 33 percent," the union minister added.
The government had suspended all domestic flights, except solely cargo-carrying flights, from March 25. It coincided with the national lockdown that was brought in to limit the spread of COVID-19.
The suspension of flight operations got extended in line with the lockdown extension. The fourth phase, which began on May 18, will last till May 31. Thus, it remains to be seen how the government plans to reopen the skies on the 25th, as the lockdown will still be on.
Interestingly, most airlines, barring Air India, had opened their counters for booking from June 1.
The Home Ministry also removed 'Domestic Air Travel of Passengers' from the list of prohibited activities, which was released earlier on May 17.
The resumption of operations will bring relief to the airlines, who were squeezed for cash and had to resort to pay cuts to reduce expenditure. Many of them, including IndiGo, SpiceJet and GoAir, had also sent a large chunk of their staff on leave without pay.
Soon after the government made this announcement earlier today, India's largest airline IndiGo said it will be resuming flight operations starting May 25, in a phased manner.
"We are fully prepared with safety measures w.r.t. COVID-19 across all our passenger and CarGo interfaces during their journey with us. We will share further details and guidelines for passengers, in line with the advisory from the authorities over the next few days," the airline said in a statement.
Advisory firm CAPA India had estimated that the sector could incur a loss of $3.6 billion and that 30 percent of the employees may find themselves without jobs. Industry executives add that much of the fleet - a total of about 650 aircraft that are parked across the country- may remain grounded despite the resumption of operations.
"Reopening domestic flights will give a big boost to our economy and kickstart the recovery of the travel industry which was the most affected during the lockdown," said Aloke Bajpai, CEO & Co-founder, ixigo, an online travel agency.
Resumption
Restarting operations could be a slow process for airlines.
The Civil Aviation Minister has made it clear that it will be done in a 'calibrated manner.' In other words, airports in red zones may not open immediately. Some of the country's biggest and busiest airports, including Delhi and Mumbai, are in red zones.
Moreover, the airlines had parked their aircraft across the country and will need to reassess the utilisation according to the protocol that will be released by the government.
"Most of the airlines have planned to utilise only about 30 percent of their fleet to start with," said a senior executive from the industry. "While initially there will be pent up demand, especially from those who are stuck in cities, the medium-term demand looks soft," the executive added.
There have been murmurs that the government may start by allowing airlines to fly between cities in green and orange zones.
Details are expected to come out on May 21, when the Minister will address the media.
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