Amid COVID-19 lockdown, Centre's plan to resume domestic flights face difficulties in states

After two months of a halt in the service due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Centre has finally planned to restart the domestic flight services from Monday.

However, media reports claimed that there is still confusion about the rules and readiness in states.

The Maharashtra government on Saturday said the state had not yet amended its May 19 lockdown order which allowed only special flights.

Maharashtra, which has the highest number of coronavirus cases in the country is not too keen on accepting the incoming of people through air travel.

Expressing his disagreement with the Centre, Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh tweeted: "Its extremely ill-advised to reopen airports in red zone. Mere thermal scanning of passengers inadequate w/o swabs. Impossible to have autos/cabs/buses ply in current circumstances. Adding positive passenger will add Covid stress to red zone."

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee informed on Saturday that she plans to write to the Centre, asking it to delay flight arrivals to Kolkata at least till May 30.

"I will write to the centre to ask them to send flights till May 28 to Bagdogra airport. I will appeal to the centre not to send flights to Kolkata at least till May 30," she said during a press conference on Saturday.

She noted that passengers landing at the Kolkata International Airport, located in North 24 Parganas, will face problems in getting transportation, given the fact that the district is highly affected by the pandemic.

"Not everyone landing at the airport will have personal transport. How will they go home? There is a lockdown going on. Some people will have cars but not everyone so that's a problem," Banerjee said.

Tamil Nadu, with the second-highest number of cases, too raised similar concerns.

It has requested the Civil Aviation Ministry to delay the plans till May 31.

Meanwhile, Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Saturday said a few states have spoken to his "senior colleagues (ministers) and questioned the necessity of restarting domestic flights so soon".

"They said the centre should delay it further by 2-3 days. So, they (ministers) asked the states to send the concerns in writing. But the states did not," he said.

"This will keep going on. When we are dealing with a situation like this, we should expect that there would be some hesitation. But it is our (centre's) responsibility and we should make efforts to make those concerns," Puri added.