State bans direct UK flight from Jan 3

Covid Test On Arrival For All Int’l Flyers

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Tamaghna.Banerjee@timesgroup.com

Kolkata: 31.12.2021

The state government on Thursday wrote to the civil aviation ministry, announcing its decision to temporarily suspend the direct flight between Kolkata and London from January 3 and Covid tests for all incoming passengers in view of the rising Omicron cases globally as well as in India.

The last flight from London to touch down in Kolkata before the ban will be on Sunday, January 2. Also till now, only passengers arriving from the UK that was categorized as an ‘at risk’ country due to the high prevalence of Omicron cases as notified by the Union health ministry were required to undergo Covid test on arrival.

Additional chief secretary BP Gopalika wrote to Union civil aviation secretary Rajiv Bansal to convey the curb on the once-a-week Air India flight that operates between Kolkata airport and Heathrow and the testing protocol for international flyers.

The letter was dispatched hours after chief minister Mamata Banerjee had sounded an alarm over the high incidence of Omicron cases among in-bound flyers and an emergency meeting that followed in the state secretariat on the issue. Kolkata airport director C Pattabhi was present at the meeting.

In Kolkata, five of the 10 Omicron cases that were tested in the state had returned from overseas. In the last flight from the UK that arrived on Boxing Day, four persons tested positive to Covid. Their samples have been sent for genome sequencing to check if they had contracted the Omicron variant.

“I love the UK. But it is being seen that a majority of Omicron cases are coming from passengers from the UK flight. Omicron is spreading rapidly and it is mostly spreading through international flights. Lets see what the civil aviation ministry does now,” the CM remarked in Gangasagar before boarding a helicopter to Kolkata.

The ban decision has left the airline and travel agents in a spot. With all flights in January booked to near capacity, it will be a herculean task to accommodate them in UK-bo- und flights departing from Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Amritsar and Ahmedabad. “It will be a logistical nightmare,” said an AI official.

The letter to the civil aviation ministry also announced that all international passengers from non-at-risk countries would have to also undergo Covid tests. While 90% will ta- ke the Rapid Antigen Test, the rest will have to undergo Rapid PCR or RT-PCR. All passengers have to mandatorily pre-book the test before boarding to reduce waiting time on arrival which the airlines must ensure prior to allowing the boarding.

Following the announcement, Pattabhi said RAT kits were being procured to comply with the government order. “We will collect samples when passengers queue up for immigration and have the result ready by the time they clear immigration. In case there is any delay, there is seating arrangement for 350 people that we can augment further,” Pattabhi said.

Travel trade industry officials said while leisure travel would stop following the curb and rising infections across the globe, those with emergency travel needs would continue to fly in through Delhi, Mumbai and other airports.