Suspension of flight service to Kolkata from major cities to continue

Shubhadeep Choudhury

Tribune News Service

Kolkata, July 17

Suspension of flight service to Kolkata from six major cities, including Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai, has been extended for the whole month of July.

On July 4, the Airport Authority of India (AAI) had announced that no flights would operate to Kolkata from Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur, Chennai and Ahmedabad from July 6 to July 19.

An AAI spokesperson today tweeted, “the restriction on flights arriving to #KolkataAirport from 6 cities viz Delhi, Mumbai,Pune,Chennai, Nagpur & Ahmedabad has been extended up to 31st July”.

West Bengal Chief Secretary Rajiva Sinha had earlier written to Civil Aviation Secretary P S Kharola to stop operation of flights to Kolkata from the six above-mentioned cities plus Surat and Indore. Sinha wrote that people coming to Kolkata from these “high prevalence” cities were spreading the COVID-19 infection.

Since there is no direct flight arriving in Kolkata from either Surat or Indore, there is no question of suspending flights to the Bengal capital from these two cities.

While more than two hundred flights operated at Kolkata Airport daily in the pre-lockdown days, the number came down to daily 65 flights only after the airport re-opened with the resumption of service from May 25. However, the service has come down to a trickle now with the fresh restrictions imposed from July 6.