A woman carrying a child arrives at T-3 airport for domestic travel, after flights were resumed, in New Delhi, Monday, May 25, 2020. All scheduled commercial passenger flights were suspended since March 25 when the government imposed a nationwide lockdown to curb the coronavirus pandemic. (PTI Photo/Kamal Kishore)
New Delhi, May 25 (ANI): Large number of flights were cancelled across the country on Monday, as domestic passenger flight operations resumed after two months.
Arrival and departure of 80 flights at Delhi's Indira Gandhi International airport were cancelled, officials said.
Earlier, the flight schedule was made for all airports including those in West Bengal (flight operations from May 28), Maharashtra (25 take-offs and 25 landings every day) and Chennai (incoming passenger flights restricted to 25).
Meanwhile, there have been 17 departures and five arrivals at Bengaluru's Kempegowda International airport on Monday till 9 am.
Nine flights have also been cancelled.
A mother who came to receive her young son at Kempegowda International Airport said, "My son has travelled alone from Delhi, he has come back to Bengaluru after three months."
Passengers of Air India Bengaluru-Hyderabad flight said that their flight was cancelled, without prior notice from the airline.
"Only when our boarding passes were scanned at the airport entry we were told that boarding has been cancelled. We don't know what to do now," said one of the passengers.
"Around 94 arrivals and 94 departures were scheduled. Yesterday certain state governments have imposed certain restrictions on the number of flights that can be operated from Mumbai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, etc, so on that basis, there will be a few more cancellations. I don't have the exact numbers right now," said Hari Marar, managing director and chief executive officer, Bengaluru airport.
Marar informed that all processes have been made completely contactless, and segregation of passengers has been done through social distancing.
"The processes have been working really well. Every passenger has to come with a home-printed boarding pass, after that we are doing a screening of all passengers. We have been sanitising the area as a precautionary measure," said Marar.
"Passengers are also behaving extremely well. So there has been no problem at all," he added.
In Bhubaneswar, five flights out of the 10 scheduled to arrive on Monday were cancelled.
"As of now, out of 10 flights which were scheduled for today, five flights have been cancelled," said the Director, Biju Patnaik International Airport, Bhubaneswar.
"One flight has already landed (Vistara's flight from Delhi) and the other four flights will land in the evening today," he added.
Vistara started its operation with the first flight to Bhubaneswar from the national capital.
Vistara Air UK-785 departed for Bhubaneswar with 95 passengers at 6.50 am on Monday. All passengers were screened before boarding the flight at Delhi's IGI airport.
"We're strictly following the government's guidelines to ensure safety against COVID19. Today has been a different experience as we're not used to wearing protective gear over our uniforms. All passengers followed the guidelines," a flight attendant on Vistara's Delhi-Bhubaneswar flight said.
Passengers deboarding were seen wearing face shields as a precautionary measure against COVID-19.
