Kolkata: Airlines, travel agents and airport operators expect the passenger count to nosedive from Monday as the state tightens rules on incoming passengers, barring anyone who does not have a negative report of an RT-PCR test from over a dozen cities.
On Friday, the state government had announced that those taking flights to Kolkata, Bagdogra or Andal from Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Chhattisgarh from Monday would have to furnish an RT-PCR Covid negative test report prior to boarding. Such reports are already required for passengers boarding from Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Kochi.
There is an existing ban on flights from five cities of Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur, Ahmedabad and Chennai on four days of the week, barring Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
“Owing to the surge in Covid infection across India, passenger count at the airport has almost halved in a month. The new notification is going to hurt the aviation industry further. Our call centres are flooded with queries from customers saying they are finding it difficult to get themselves tested,” said an airline official.
25/04/21 Tamaghna Banerjee/Times of India
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