The upper and lower limits for the airfares have been set by the government for the next three months till the month of august since the flight operations are resuming from next Monday.
The government said that has now become important for India to impose some strict measure for the nationwide lockdown for two months.
“Because the measures were taken early on in India, we have been able to escape the situation the other countries have found themselves in. It is equally important that at some stage you will have to open.”
“Two months is a very long period of time as you have to balance between lives and livelihood, it is time to now open up,” said Puri in a press conference on Thursday.
The flight fares of domestic will be scaled up and depending on the situation the measures will be taken for international flights.
The centre has put restrictions on 7 bands in flight duration and will be placed till august 24. Puri said that the first band will have a flight with lesser time limits of 40 minutes of duration while the second, third, fourth, and fifth will be of the time durations of 40-60,60-90-90-120 and 120-150 respectively and the sixth and seventh band will have the time durations of 150-180 and 180-210.
According to the ministry’s order for operations from the metro to metro cities, the airlines will be allowed to run on one-third capacity of the approved scheduled, these cities refer to Delhi, Mumbai Hyderabad Chennai Kolkata and Bengaluru. The airlines have been asked to
submit a revised schedule to the centre.
Weekly departures of less than 100 flights for movement from the metro to nonmetro cities and vice versa has been decided, airlines are free to operate on any route of the one-third the capacity of approved summer schedule as stated by order.
“Earlier the air carriers were allowed to put their fares we have looked at corresponding rail fares. We want air travel to become affordable. We have set a minimum fare and a maximum fare for Delhi to Mumbai, the fare will be minimum of 3500 and the maximum of 10,000.40% of the tickets will be sold at the midpoint of this band and the tickets will be priced at 6700.
The civil aviation ministry also issued detailed guidelines for both passengers and the airlines. The guidelines do not allow old age people. pregnant women and children to travel.
People who have been tested positive for the virus are not allowed to travel through the airlines as well. Only one baggage is allowed to be carried and the people coming from containment zones will not be able to travel on the flights.
It has been made compulsory to wear a mask and reach the airport 2 hours before the departure. The meals service has been temporarily stopped by the government in the flight’s Passengers have been asked to familiarise themselves with the new norms of the airport to
keep a distance of 6 ft from a person, minimum touch and less luggage, registering on the Aarogya Setu app and digital payments for authorized cabs and children below the age of 14 have been exempted.
Another thing to be remembered by the passengers is that if they do not have the Aarogya Setu app they can submit a self-declaration form and will not be stopped from boarding the flight.
Puri said that people who will be taking short-distance flights will not be needing to quarantine themselves upon reaching the destination but will have to go through the health protocols devised for the situation ongoing according to the ministry’s guidelines.
The centre has also allowed the airlines to operate at full capacity since it was not possible to keep the middle seats vacant . “this is not an option being followed by any other country as well”.
The resumption of flights is a step in the direction of graded exit from the lockdown situation which has been extended till the end of this month and the international flights will be shut down till May 22.
