Bengaluru, May 25 (PTI) Domestic air travel resumed on Monday after two months of COVID-19 induced lockdown at the city's Kempegowda International Airport, with a total of 74 Air Traffic Movements till this evening, even as cancellations marred the day.
"As on 17:00 hrs (5 pm) on May 25, 2020, the airport registered a total of 74 Air Traffic Movements, including 43 departures and 31 arrivals," Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL), that operates the city airport, said in a release.
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A total of 74 flights were cancelled for the day, it said, adding that the airport would continue to operate as per flight schedules.
The first flight out was an Air Asia aircraft to Ranchi that departed at around 5:15 am, while the first arrival was an Indigo flight from Chennai at about 7:35 am with around 113 passengers.
Restrictions on the number of flights by some states, some of them mandating institutional quarantine, led to cancellation of several arrivals and outbound flights, sources said.
Some passengers claimed that flights were cancelled at the last moment, like the Bengaluru-Hyderabad flight.
There were also reports of cancellation of some flights from Sambra airport in Belagavi and Mangaluru airport.
Among the passengers who arrived in the city's airport on Monday was five-year-old Vihaan Sharma, who travelled alone from Delhi.
His mother was seen anxiously waiting to meet her son after three months.
As per the state government's Standard Operating Procedure, passengers who arrived from high COVID-19 prevalence states were shifted to hotels for seven days of institutional quarantine by Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) buses, specially arranged for the purpose.
"BIAL will continue to work closely with various government departments to ensure that air passengers adhere to the new quarantine policy," the release said.
The Karnataka government has said people coming from high COVID-19 prevalence states--Maharashtra, Gujarat, Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh---will have to go for institutional quarantine for seven days, and charges to be borne by the passengers.
After their COVID tests come out negative (swab should be taken between 5-7 days after their arrival) using "pool testing", they should be sent for home quarantine for another seven days, sources said.
Those coming from other low prevalence states have been asked to follow 14 days of home quarantine.
Home quarantine is allowed for pregnant women, children below 10 years, senior citizens 80 years and above and terminally ill patients along with one attendant after their test result is negative.
In special cases where businessmen come for urgent work, they are permitted without the necessity of quarantine if they bring the negative test report of COVID-19 from an ICMR approved laboratory and it should be not be more than two days older from the date of travel.
In case they don't have such a certificate, they have to undergo COVID-19 test and stay in paid institution quarantine till the test result comes out.
In an effort to protect passengers and staff from the risk of COVID-19 transmission, Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL) has introduced a Parking-to-Boarding "contactless" journey.
"The innovative contactless procedures and the stringent operating procedures introduced to mitigate the risk of COVID-19 transmission, ensured all passengers had a seamless airport experience," the release said.
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)