Flights in AP cancelled, services from Visakhapatnam and other cities to resume from 26 May

Domestic flights from Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada, and other airports in Andhra Pradesh will resume operations from 26 May after the Centre cancelled the services that were originally slated to reopen from 25 May.  Announcing the same on Sunday night, Union Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri tweeted, “As per request of state govt, operations in Andhra Pradesh will recommence on limited scale from 26 May.” While flights from West Bengal will resume from 28 May, other states have recommenced domestic flight services from Monday.

Arrangements have been made across different airports in Andhra Pradesh to screen the passengers flying in. As per the schedule released earlier, Visakhapatnam Airport was set to send and receive flights from four major cities- Hyderabad, New Delhi, Bengaluru, and Chennai- from 25 May. The authorities have also planned quarantine measures for passengers arriving in Andhra Pradesh from other states, given the COVID-19 scare. As per an update from the Health Department of Andhra Pradesh, 45 foreign returnees (41 from Kuwait, 3 from Qatar, and 1 from Saudi Arabia) tested positive for COVID-19 in the state on Monday.

Meanwhile, with flights in Andhra Pradesh being cancelled, Telugu Desam Party chief and former Chief Minister, Chandrababu Naidu is known to have altered his plans to visit Visakhapatnam. After receiving an e-pass from Andhra Pradesh DGP, the senior politician was originally scheduled to arrive in Visakhapatnam on Monday for meeting the victims of the tragic LG Polymers gas leak.