KOLKATA: More than 60% flights that dotted the sky in the Kolkata flight information region (FIR) in February 2020 are back in air despite Singapore, Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur — major airline hubs in the region — yet to resume operations.
Air traffic controllers, too, are back to being their busy selves. For two months beginning April, their workplace that used to always buzz with transmissions between the controllers on the ground and pilots in the sky had suddenly gone silent. Now, the chatter is back. From hardly any flights to monitor earlier in the year, they witnessed a steady rise in flight activities since June and a sharper spike in operations in September and October. The recovery would have been more impressive had curbs on flights from six high-traffic cities to Kolkata been lifted.
