KOLKATA: The civil aviation ministry on Friday evening extended the temporary restriction on flights from six cities in states with high Covid-19 prevalence to Kolkata till July 31. The embargo on these flights was scheduled to end on Monday.
Officials in the civil aviation ministry said the decision had been taken following a request from the state government. Bengal chief secretary Rajiva Sinha wrote to civil aviation secretary Pradeep Singh Kharola on Friday morning, seeking the extension on the embargo on flights from Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Chennai, Nagpur and Ahmedabad. Several other states including Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra and Telangana have similar restrictions on flight arrivals.
Though there is no official restriction on flights from Kolkata to the six cities, airlines have cancelled these flights as well citing logistics issues.
The fortnight-long ban had come into effect from July 6 and was to end on July 19. Anticipating flights would commence, all airlines had opened bookings on these sectors and received enthusiastic response from flyers.
