Airlines Are Accepting Bookings For June: Report

According to a PTI report citing its sources, some airlines have started bookings for flights for travel from June onwards. At present commercial flight services have been suspended as per government orders till 31 May 2020.

"Domestic airlines have opened bookings for their flights from June onwards," one of the sources told the news agency. The report added that IndiGo and Vistara were accepting bookings for domestic flights, however, when PTI contacted a SpiceJet spokesperson, in a statement, said, "Our international bookings are closed till 15 June."

There are no official comments from IndiGo, Vistara and GoAir on commencement of bookings.

To curb the spread of COVID-19, commercial flights were suspended in India since 25 March, when the nationwide lockdown began.

Soon after the nationwide lockdown was extended till 31 May, aviation regulator DGCA on Sunday said all scheduled commercial passenger flights have been suspended till 31 May midnight.

"Foreign and domestic airlines shall be suitably informed about the opening of their operations whether international to or from India or domestic, respectively, in due course," it added.

A Bloomberg report said that Indian carriers more than doubled their scheduled seat capacity this week and was the biggest aviation industry rebound globally since the COVID-19 outbreak, it said. The report said that according to OAG Aviation Worldwide global airlines added nearly 1.9 million seats to reach a total of 31.7 million, a 6 percent rise from the previous week, of which 1.7 million seats came from India.

Shares of InterGlober Aviation (parent company of IndiGo) and SpiceJet were trading lower than their previous close on Tuesday.