Several days after the government announced the resumption of some domestic commercial flights from May 25, Union Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Saturday said that his ministry will try to start some percentage of international passenger flights as well by August this year.
"We will try to start a good percentage of international passenger flights before August," he said during an interactive session on social media.
"I am bombarded on social media by people stranded in Morocco, Latin America, UK, Argentina and we are doing the best we can and adding more flights. We will increase the number of international passenger flights in the coming days," said Puri.
On being asked if international students also need to install Aarogya Setu App, Puri said, "Arogya Setu app is something I would suggest to everyone as it is an excellent contact-tracing app. There is nothing comparable to this app."
"If you have taken a test and your test report is negative, following you don't have any symptoms, so I believe there should be no need for quarantine. The Arogya Setu app is like a passport if your status on the app is green. Why should anyone want any quarantine," he added.
He continued saying that all Indian citizens can return but we are starting with those Indian citizens who are in a state of distressed or stranded outside. All Indian citizens don't want to come back.
"We are letting the OCI holders to come back. We are in an evacuation position so we are starting with smaller numbers. From May 6 to May 31 we have brought back around 50,000 people. Our private operators have also joined us in this," said Singh.
Puri added that the Centre will put in place arrangements to make sure that your coming to the airport is facilitated. Borders between Delhi-Haryana and Delhi -Uttar Pradesh is the matter of state governments and they will deal with it.
"Why wait till August-Sept? If situation eases or improves - if virus behaves in a predictable manner, we get used to the idea of being able to co-exist with it and we're in a position to make arrangements-why not start by June middle or end July? said Puri on international flight movement.
"Our effort would be to see that if we are able to see that at least a good percentage, even if not the international civil aviation, we can start," he added.
Speaking about the flight tickets, Puri said, "We will ensure that a fair band remains between the floor price and the ceiling price and 40 per cent of the seats are sold between the floor price and the mean point".
( With inputs from ANI )