Airlines May Resume Flights From June 1st; Indigo, SpiceJet, Vistara, Air India Can Open Bookings From May 23

The lockdown in India has been extended for the third time. However, the news is that airlines in India will be resuming operations from the first week in June. also, the bookings of airlines will reportedly start 10 days prior to this.

Previously we reported that the airlines will start their bookings from April 15th, however, that didn’t happen since the lockdown has been extended again. 

Read on for all the details!

Airlines To Resume Operations From First Week Of June

The coronavirus pandemic requires people to maintain social distancing, which is quite impossible if people travel from one place to another. All modes of transportation have been suspended, including airlines, railways, and others, impacting their revenues disastrously. 

However, government sources have revealed that airlines will be restarting their operations by the first week of June. The bookings for these flights will restart 10 days prior to that. 

A senior aviation ministry official revealed, “Restarting operations will depend on the situation with respect to number of (coronavirus) cases but the expectations are that it should start by the first week of June. We plan to allow airlines to open booking 10 days prior to the restart of operations.”

However, he said that this is limited only to domestic services. There have been no discussions about restarting international operations. 

The Government is of the opinion that 10 days will be sufficient for airlines to start the bookings for the flights. However, the industry executives are of the opinion that it will take more than 10 days for airlines to put together a network, plan fleet deployment, implement safety guidelines and generate adequate bookings.

GoAir, Spicejet Ltd Restart Bookings From May 16

As per reports, GoAir and SpiceJet Ltd have already started accepting bookings for travel between all the major sectors from May 16. Other airlines, such as Vistara, AirAsia India and IndiGo, have already resumed booking their tickets for flights from June 1. However, there is news that Air India Ltd has refused to reopening their bookings for the flights. 

The biggest problem all the airlines will come across is maintaining the physical distancing so that the virus does not spread any further. 

All the commercial flights have been suspended since March 25.