Following the address of Prime Minister Narendra Modi announcing the extension of lockdown till May 3, the DGCA has now issued a circular stating all international as well as domestic flights will remain suspended during the lockdown.
Ahead of this Hardeep Singh Puri, Minister of Civil Aviation, in a tweet has said that the government is yet to take any decision on resumption of flight services both on domestic and international sectors. A senior Civil Aviation Ministry official earlier told PTI that the government is likely to allow domestic and international flight operations in India in a staggered manner post the 21-day lockdown period which is slated to end on April 14.
The aviation sector has been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic. Recently, Air Deccan became the latest casualty of the crisis as it announced indefinite suspension of flight operations and asked all employees to go on sabbatical without pay.
"If the lockdown is extended post-April 14, airlines will have to cancel the tickets booked for that time period," the official noted.
All major airlines except Air India were taking domestic bookings for dates post-April 14. Air India was taking bookings for dates post-April 30 only.
As revenues have fallen significantly, IndiGo has announced a pay cut of up to 25 per cent for its senior employees and Vistara has announced a compulsory leave without pay of up to three days for its senior employees in March.
SpiceJet has stated that its employees' salaries would be reduced between 10 to 30 per cent and Air India has announced a 10 per cent cut in allowances for every employee, except cabin crew, for the coming three months.
GoAir has cut salaries of its employees, laid off its expat pilots and introduced leave without pay for employees on a rotational basis.
India had imposed a 21-day lockdown from March 25 to curb the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. Consequently, all domestic and international commercial passenger flights were suspended for this time period.
However, cargo flights, offshore helicopter operations, medical evacuation flights and special flights permitted by Indian aviation regulator DGCA are permitted to operate during this lockdown.
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