After 60 Days, The Indian Airspace Is Open And These Maps Show The Difference
Amid chaos and confusion at several airports, hundreds of people reached airports to take early morning flights to their hometowns. And Air Traffic has quite obviously picked up.
Air travel resumed across India this morning, two months after the lockdown announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, bringing relief to the aviation sector that was reportedly on the brink of collapse.
According to Money Control, in March, the traffic dropped by a third with a week without operations and COVID-19 spreading wider than before. As Indians shunned air travel, except for the last two days of operations when people tried getting back to their home base, airlines had started reducing services and eventually parked over 650 aircraft at airports across the country.
Indian Air Traffic In March/Source/News18/Flight Radar
Amid chaos and confusion at several airports, hundreds of people reached airports to take early morning flights to their hometowns. And air traffic quite obviously picked up.
This is clearly visible when you open live air traffic websites like FlightRadar24. The website provides live air traffic over airspace from all over the world.
The screenshot of the Indian air traffic was also shared by journalist Tarun Shukla on Twitter saying, ¡®Sky has planes again.¡¯
Sky has planes again ?? pic.twitter.com/gLR1y3Z9Vh
¡ª Tarun Shukla (@shukla_tarun) May 25, 2020
Government officials said on Sunday night that the airports in Kolkata and Bagdogra in cyclone-hit West Bengal will not operate any domestic flight between May 25 and 27 but will handle 20 flights each per day from May 28.
FlightRadar24/Airspace After Flight Operations Begin
The airports in Mumbai and Hyderabad will daily handle 50 and 30 flights, respectively, from Monday, they said. Maharashtra Government had requested the Centre to keep the air services at the minimum possible level.
Bookings had opened for around 1,050 domestic flights planned for Monday, but the revised schedule has led to the cancellation of several flights leaving hundreds of passengers disappointed. The airlines were allowed to operate one-third of their capacity.
With the number of coronavirus cases crossing 1.3 lakh, the government announced a series of do's and don'ts that would begin with social distancing at the airport and no-contact check-in.
The use of masks, face shields, and gloves could also be made mandatory for the flyers. Another major change that is likely to be enforced is the use of the Aarogya Setu app for all the passengers to gain access to the airport.
Various states, however, are insisting on varying degrees of quarantine apparently creating sufficient confusion among travellers.
