New Delhi: India’s largest airline IndiGo is ready to restart operations in a curtailed manner from May 4 and will temperature screen all passengers before boarding.
The airline’s statement comes after Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday announced that the COVID-19 lockdown has been extended till 3 May.
In its press release, Ronojoy Dutta, Chief Executive Officer, IndiGo said, “Complementing the government’s efforts against COVID-19, we will restart flight operations on vital corridors of air traffic from 4 May 2020.”
IndiGo is working closely with the government and the airports to take its aircraft to a “significantly higher level of cleanliness” while ensuring “social distancing”, the CEO said.
Chief operating officer (COO) Wolfgang Prock-Scahuer, in an internal memo, asked staff to maintain 1 metre distance from each other and prevent assembling of two people at the same time.
Initially, India had imposed a 21-day lockdown from 25 March to 14 April to curb the spread of coronavirus. All domestic and international commercial passenger flights have been suspended during the lockdown period.
IndiGo said in its press release on Tuesday, “Initially, starting with a slightly curtailed capacity, the airline will increase the operating capacity over the subsequent months, also reopening selected international flights, depending on the existing international travel guidelines.”
On Tuesday, the Civil Aviation Ministry tweeted, “All domestic and international scheduled airlines operations shall remain suspended till 11.59 pm of 3 May 2020.” After the ministry’s tweet, Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said there were good reasons for the lockdown to be extended till 3 May.
“We can consider lifting restrictions on both domestic and international flights thereafter. I understand the problems being faced by people who need to travel and request them to bear with us,” Puri tweeted.
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