All Domestic flight operations across India to be closed from March 25, 2020 onwards

I was just writing about how long do I think will domestic flights be still flying, when a new update from the Ministry of Civil Aviation popped in.

All the airlines in India are going to withdraw all domestic flights between March 25 onwards, due to the CoVid19 it seems. The new notification simply reads,

The operations of domestic schedule commercial airlines shall cease with effect from the mid-night, that is 23.59 hours IST on 24/3/2020.

Airlines have to plan operations so as to land at their destination before 2359 hours on 24/3/2020.

This restriction does not apply to cargo flights. The circular issued by MoCA states that the restriction will be valid till March 31, 2020, 2359 hours.

Air India seems to have had a heads up of this because Air India has zeroed out all the inventory for the above stated period out of its network. At the moment, their network is not selling tickets until March 31, 2020.

Like you can see, I tried booking a ticket between Mumbai and Delhi, and the airline website shows all tickets not available.

a screenshot of a flight schedule a screenshot of a flight schedule

Same results on other sectors as well.

a screen shot of a website

a screenshot of a flight schedule

If you really urgently need to go somewhere, I guess you only have tomorrow, March 24, 2020, to get there.


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About Ajay

Ajay Awtaney is the Founder and Editor of Live From A Lounge (LFAL), a pioneering digital platform renowned for publishing news and views about aviation, hotels, passenger experience, loyalty programs, travel trends and frequent travel tips for the Global Indian. He is considered the Indian authority on business travel, luxury travel, frequent flyer miles, loyalty credit cards and travel for Indians around the globe. Ajay is a frequent contributor and commentator on the media as well, including ET Now, BBC, CNBC TV18, NDTV, Conde Nast Traveller and many other outlets.

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Comments

  1. Request the govt to allow some minimum domestic flights so that the stranded can be with the families. Many people are living alone and this is seriously affecting their mental health with depression, anxiety and stress.

  2. I have booked a flight with Indigo today pnq to del for 15th April 2020, as the flight get booked I think they will fly too.

    If not then I demand a full refund

  3. I have airindia ticke to uae to hyd now flight is cancelled wt to do now when start the flight pls give information

  4. My flight Goair got cancelled but whether I will get full refund or not
    ..I want to Know when will all domestic flight will open again??

  5. I have a flight from Mumbai to Bengaluru on 25th March on Air Asia and I expect that flight to be cancelled soon. I tried rescheduling the flight to April but no one is picking up. Neither the airline nor the travel agency.

    All the lines seem choco-blocked full.

  6. I have to report to my college in Dehradun on April 14. Will the domestic air services work or shut down due to coronavirus?? If flights don’t operate then, when will the domestic flights start operating again??

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