In a recent interview given to CNBC-TV18, Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri has said that keeping the middle seat empty in flights to maintain social distancing is not an option and airlines will have to come up with different solution to stop the spread of COVID-19.
Citing the low margin for air carriers, Minister Puri said that if middle row seats are forced to keep empty, many airlines might choose not to operate the flights owing to paperthin margin in the industry. He said that flying a plane 1/3rd empty is not an option.
Keeping the middle seat vacant has not been an option for any airline in the world. Airlines already operate on very thin margins & if you keep 1/3rd of aircraft empty many of them will choose not to fly. This might be counter productive. We would need to take other precautions. pic.twitter.com/YP6g7cYV04— Hardeep Singh Puri (@HardeepSPuri) May 7, 2020
In a recent interview given to he also confirmed that domestic flight services will only resume when both arrival and departure cities are in Green Zone. He said that it will be challenging to start flight services as the zones keep on changing based on covid-19 cases.
The government is already in discussion with airlines to start scheduled commercial flight services post lockdown on May 17. Minister Puri said that whenever the flight services will resume, they will resume in a phased manner with domestic airlines operating in the initial phase, followed by international flights.
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