Kolkata: Airlines fly the extra mile to get round six-city partial ban

KOLKATA: With no notification yet from either the state government or the civil aviation ministry on lifting the partial restriction on flights from Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and three other cities to Kolkata, some airlines have rejigged their October schedules in such a way that they can take off for Kolkata from these cities six days a week while adhering to the state government’s thrice-a-week guideline.
On Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday, multiple airlines will be operating flights that will take off late at night to ensure that when they touch down at Kolkata airport, it will be past midnight and technically Monday, Wednesday or Friday when flight operations are allowed. This was done after airlines realized the need to salvage flights in October, for which bookings had already been made, anticipating that the restrictions on flights from Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Pune, Nagpur and Ahmedabad would be scrapped by the state government due to the festive season.