Avoidable confusion in resumption of domestic air services
The resumption of domestic flights, announced rather suddenly, does not seem to have taken off very smoothly on the first day. This was primarily due to two reasons: one, some states such as Maharashtra said they would only allow a limited number of flights daily, especially in Mumbai, which alone accounts for more than 30,000 Covid-19 cases.
This announcement of restricted flights was made only on Sunday after a prolonged discussion between Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Puri. Second, almost all states have declared that fliers would have to undergo a two-week quarantine despite Puri saying last week that this was not necessary. The confusion appears to have resulted in many flights being cancelled. There are reports that several fliers came to know of this only after reaching the airport. This kind of harassment of the paying public was wholly avoidable.
The announcement about the resumption of flights from Monday was made on May 20. The government had five days to tie up all loose ends for this massive task. But it seems that the Centre and state governments had not coordinated properly in order to see that operations could resume without any hiccup. This was clear from the divergent voices on the quarantine rule. While Puri said there was no need for fliers to be isolated, most states have decided to enforce quarantine. It was perhaps because of this confusion that the Centre and states were in hectic talks even until Sunday night. This was evident from Puri’s tweet, in which he revealed that he had spent “a long day in hard negotiations” with the states on the resumption of flights.
Business and commercial establishments are yet to open fully even a week after major relaxations were announced. Industrial units and factories have not started operating at optimal levels as supply chains are still being restored. Given the difficult task to unlock the lockdown, the Centre and states should have ironed out all the creases before announcing the resumption of flights. This would have spared the inconvenience caused to thousands of fliers.