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Centre suspends meals on flights having duration of less than 2 hours

The ban will come into effect from Thursday, the ministry said in its order
Last Updated 12 April 2021, 18:05 IST

As Covid-19 cases spiked, the Civil Aviation Ministry on Monday asked airlines not to serve meals on domestic flights having a duration of less than two hours.

“The airlines operating flights on domestic sectors may provide meals services on board where flight duration is two hours or more,” the ministry said, updating the guidelines for domestic flight operations.

The ministry also suggested staggering of inflight meals among adjacent seats as far as possible, apparently to ensure that not all passengers remove their face masks to eat at the same time.

The new guidelines will come into effect from Thursday April 15.

The decision comes amid reports of passengers violating Covid-19 protocols on board flights, particularly after meals were served.

The ministry, while resuming the scheduled domestic flights post-lockdown last year, had allowed airlines to serve in-flight meals with certain conditions such as use of disposable cutlery, plates and glasses for such service.

The ministry had clearly banned re-use of disposable trays, crockery and cutleries with elaborate directions for disposing of such items in trash cans.

The ministry said a decision to review the on-board meal services in domestic flights had to be taken considering “the increasing threat of Covid-19 and its variants”.

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(Published 12 April 2021, 11:23 IST)

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