Will try to start most int'l passenger flights before Aug, says Puri

Days after announcing the resumption of some domestic commercial passenger flights from May 25, Union Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri Saturday said the ministry will try to start some percentage of international passenger flights as well before August this year. “We will try to start a good percentage of international passenger flights before August,” he said.

The Centre on Wednesday announced that domestic flight services would resume from Monday in a “calibrated manner”, laying the ground for a gradual resumption of scheduled commercial flight operations that have been shut since March 25.

Speaking on the same, Puri said there’s no contradiction between the starting of flights and the extension of the fourth phase of the nationwide lockdown. “There’s no contradiction between domestic flights beginning from May 25 and lockdown in India being imposed till May 31. We will be able to bring around 50,000 citizens back through special flights during the first 25 days of Vande Bharat Mission,” he added.