Airlines poised to begin int’l flights from Aug, push for nod

Airlines poised to begin int’l flights from Aug, push for nod

But Stranded Passengers Want Flights To Int’l Hubs Soon

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai: 25.06.2020

Airlines, including foreign carriers, are gearing up to start international flights from major cities including Chennai from August and have started to push for approvals.

However, stranded passengers and travel operators want the government to allow flights to international hubs immediately so that people waiting to fly to the US, Canada and Europe can board connecting flights from Dubai or Singapore instead of waiting for full-fledged scheduled operations to commence. This will also help people who want to return to India.

Most of the airlines have started to display fare for direct flights from Chennai to different destinations abroad. However, the ministry of civil aviation has not responded to the requests of the airlines.

Virgin airlines have already announced that they are resuming operations on its network from August and flights will start from Delhi and Mumbai to London in September.

Basheer Ahmed of Travel Agents Federation of India (TAFI) said, “Foreign carriers are ready to start services from India from August. Airlines based in the Middle East too have started to approach the government. However, this will require permission from the ministry of civil aviation and the state government who are worried about space for institutional quarantine.”

He said the government can, instead, look at allowing limited flights to nearby international hubs like Dubai and Singapore which are already opening up around 20% of its flights. “This will help passengers from Chennai who want to travel to Europe and the US to board connecting flights and those who want to return to India. The hubs will also benefit because a good number of people will want to board connecting flights to the US, Europe, Australia, Hong Kong, Japan. If this is done, there is no need for Vande Bharat flights,” he added.

Air Passengers Association of India (APAI) national president D Sudhakara Reddy said, “We have been pushing the government to permit flights to be operated from Chennai to nearest hubs like Singapore, Dubai and Kuala Lumpur so that people who are stuck here can book and fly instead of waiting for Air India to operate Vande Bharat mission flights. The mission which the government calls as evacuation cannot go on forever. They should allow foreign airlines to operate a limited number of flights.”

Nikhil Varghese, who works in Canada and is stuck here because of the lockdown said, “It is tough to book tickets for Air India flights because the website shows an error. There are flights going to Canada from Dubai next month. If the government allows a limited number of flights to Dubai many people like me can take another flight from there to Toronto.”