India Suspends All Domestic Passenger Flights Starting March 25 Due To COVID-19

As part of its attempts to limit the spread of COVID-19 in the country, the Indian government has decided to have all passenger flights suspended starting March 25. This decision follows the government’s acknowledgment of the coronavirus pandemic which has claimed thousands of lives around the world.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has directed airlines to halt their fleet of plans by midnight March 24. Starting March 25, even domestic commercial passenger flights are not allowed to operate in India, according to the Union Civil Aviation Ministry’s statement.

Specifically, the ministry spokesperson said:

The spokesperson added that airlines are forced to plan their operations so that all the planes will land at their designated destinations by 11:59 PM today. Meanwhile, the spokesperson clarified that the suspension is not applied to cargo flights.

Since the outbreak of COVID-19 in late December 2019, the pandemic has recently spread to India and the number of cases has been rising fast. From 369 confirmed cases yesterday, India now has 471 confirmed cases along with 7 deaths. The largest increase in cases per day has been recorded to be 81 cases per day from last week.

In such a situation, the Indian government is taking strict measures in an effort to stop COVID-19 from spreading further, killing more people. A couple of days ago, we learned that 75 districts across the country are now on lockdown while all rail movements are halted. At the same time, several state governments have shut down school and colleges until March 31 and a 14-hour curfew is now applies that requires people to stay inside the house from 7 AM to 9 PM.

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