KIA gears up for return of domestic flights

Having received hundreds of passengers arriving by evacuation flights from multiple international destinations, the Kempegowda International Airport is geared up for the calibrated return of domestic flights from May 25.

On Wednesday evening, too, an Air India Express Boeing 737 flight from Muscat landed at the airport with 179 returnees. Of the passengers, 115 were from Bengaluru and 64 from Mangaluru. All of them were shifted to institutional quarantine centres spread across the city.

To ensure their safety and also those arriving and departing by the domestic flights, the Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL) has already upgraded its social distancing, thermal screening, sanitisation and disinfection tunnels at KIA. The terminal is fumigated and contactless F&B experience introduced.

A final picture of the new arrangements will emerge once the Ministry of Civil Aviation formally communicates its detailed standard operating procedure (SOP) for airports, a BIAL spokesperson told DH.

Meanwhile, many of the protocols are already in place, with passengers encouraged to use online check-in and carry an electronic or printed boarding pass to avoid contact with high-touch surfaces and queues at check-in counters. The Aarogya Setu app has also been made mandatory for passengers to download before they enter the terminal.

The return of domestic flights is also expected to be a big relief for thousands of airport taxi drivers, whose livelihoods have taken a severe beating ever since flight operations were banned in the last week of March.