Over 500 flights take off, but states create plane confusion at airports

Maharashtra clears air, says short-term visitors exempt from isolation

It was a day of delight and despair for passengers as domestic airlines resumed flights on Monday after two months of suspension. While more than 39,000 people flew on Day One, several hundred remained stranded due to last minute cancellations.

Even as airlines were supposed to operate 33 per cent of the approved summer schedule, they were forced to rework their itineraries late Sunday evening following many rounds of discussions between the Centre and states. The original schedule turned upside down as Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana, allowed operations with only limited number of flights…

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Industry sources estimated the average passenger load on Monday at around 55 per cent, with IndiGo operating half the total flights. For some flights, fewer than 10 passengers turned up. Alliance Air’s Delhi-Jaipur and Delhi-Dehradun flights flew with two and three passengers only, executives confirmed.

While flights from Delhi to Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and Northeast states saw 100-plus passengers each, Bengaluru and Mumbai-bound flights from the Capital had lower number of passengers. Short-duration visitors, including business travellers, will not be required to undergo isolation in Maharashtra, the state said in its standard operating procedures for domestic air travel on Monday…Read More

Covid-19: Full refund if you booked air tickets from March 25 to April 14

Many have been complaining on social media as airlines have decided not to give refunds in cash for cancelled flights and are instead issuing credit for future travel.

The Civil Aviation Ministry on Thursday said the passengers who had booked flight tickets during the first phase of lockdown for travel up to May 3 must get a full refund from the airlines without any cancellation charges if they ask for it. Many have been complaining on social media as airlines have decided not to give refunds in cash for cancelled flights and are instead issuing credit for future travel.

Zoom not a safe platform, says MHA advisory

The Ministry of Home Affairs said in an advisory that video conferencing software Zoom is not a safe platform, and is not for use by government offices or officials. Earlier, Zoom CEO Eric Yuan had apologised for the company failing to fully implement its usual geo-fencing best practices, while assuring customers that there was no impact on Zoom for Government Cloud, a separate cloud service for government customers.

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Maha tally crosses 3K-mark, 2,073 of these in Mumbai

As many as 286 new cases of COVID-19 were detected in Maharashtra, taking the tally beyond the 3,200-mark on Thursday, while the fatality count inched towards the 200-level with seven more deaths, most of them senior citizens, said a state health official. With the detection of fresh cases in the last 24 hours, Maharashtra has so far reported 3,202 coronavirus cases, the highest for a state in the country, while the death toll is now 194, he added…Read Full Story