Days after announcing resumption of domestic flights from May 25, Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri today said efforts were on to try and start some percentage of international passenger flights before August.
Thousands of NRIs are stuck in the country and there have been demands to resume international flights.
Will try to resume international flights before August: Puri
Tribune News Service
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, May 23
Days after announcing resumption of domestic flights from May 25, Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri today said efforts were on to try and start some percentage of international passenger flights before August.
Thousands of NRIs are stuck in the country and there have been demands to resume international flights.
The government will be able to facilitate NRIs stuck here much before international air travel is resumed. — HS Puri, Civil Aviation Minister
Puri, through a Facebook live programme, was addressing concerns of people about domestic and international travel. He said the government would be able to facilitate NRIs much before international air travel resumed.
He said foreigners stranded in India due to suspension of international air travel had already been returning in evacuation flights, being operated by their respective countries.
Asked whether NRIs would be able to return by August or September, the minister said, “We must have a more ambitious goal. Why not start by mid-June or June-end or July.”
Puri said if the situation remained predictable, he was confident of starting a good part of international travel, if not all of it, much before August-September.
He reiterated that domestic passengers who did not have Covid-19 symptoms and had a green status on Aarogya Setu app need not be quarantined after reaching their destinations.
The minister said the Vande Bharat Mission, which began on May 7, would be able to bring a total 50,000 Indians, who have been stranded abroad, home by May-end.
