Government grounds domestic flights from Tuesday midnight

The government today said that domestic airline Operations will be suspended after Tuesday midnight, a move that will bring the country to a standstill.

“The operations of domestic schedule commercial airlines shall cease operations with effective from the mid night that is 23.59 hours IST on 24/3/2020,” said a statement from the government.

The release added that airlines have to plan operations so as to land at their destination before 2359 hours on 24/3/2020.


“The restrictions shall not apply to solely cargo carrying flights,” added the statement.

The government, which has announced cancellation of all international flights starting early morning on Monday.

It had also cancelled train services, inter state bus services, metro services and all other public transport services in an attempt to Contain the spread of Coronavirus in the country that has infected over 430 people in India & the number of infected patients is growing fast.

Airlines, last week, had also raised concerns of poor passenger loads on domestic flights in a meeting in the aviation ministry last week.

A large number of flights were being merged to fill planes, as people are avoiding travel.