Union civil aviation minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Saturday said the central government will try to restart operations of international passenger flights operations before August.
“I am fully hopeful that before August or September, we will try to start a good percentage of international civil aviation operations, if not complete international operations,” Puri said during a Facebook live session.
“ If situation eases or improves – if virus behaves in predictable manner, we get used to idea of being able to co-exist with it and we are in position to make arrangements-why not start by June middle or end July?” he said.
During the online discussion, Puri also said that he did not understand the need to quarantine domestic air passengers whose status shows ’green’ on the Aarogya Setu app.
“If you have taken a test and your test report is negative, following which you don’t have any symptoms, I believe there should be no need for quarantine,” said Puri.
“The Aarogya Setu app is like a passport, if your status on the app is green. Why should anyone want any quarantine?” he added.
Puri’s comment came after six states- Assam, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Telangana-were of the view that people arriving in domestic passenger flights needs to be quarantined.
The civil aviation minister on Wednesday said that domestic civil aviation operations will recommence in a calibrated manner from May 25.