New Delhi: Hong Kong has for the fifth time suspended Air India (AI) flights, now from Friday till December 3. The Chinese special administrative region’s (SAR) suspends flights of any airline whose five or more passengers test positive on arrival, for two weeks.
The latest restriction on AI comes for the same reason. While confirming AI has been “barred for 14 days till December 3,” a senior official wondered why that had happened as it “didn’t have any flight scheduled during this (the latest restriction) period.”
Earlier, Hong Kong had barred AI flights from Delhi thrice — one each in August, September and October. On one occasion, Vistara was also barred with AI. Flights from Mumbai were barred in October-end for two weeks.
Air India maintains it is following all rules of destination countries. Speaking when the fourth ban happened, a senior official had said: “… as a responsible airline, AI is strictly conforming to (all) rules and protocol. Only passengers with Covid negative reports are being allowed to board from any destination in India. Another mandatory Covid-19 test is carried out for passengers after landing in Hong Kong and reports of the same may be at variance from the reports of tests conducted 72 hours before taking the flight. Hence, Air India cannot be held responsible for any lacunae on the issue of passenger test reports.”
20/11/20 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India
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