All domestic and international flights were suspended amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Highlights
- The suspensions came after a request from Bengal government on June 30
- The state wants flights from other cities reduced to 1 a week per airline
- Civil Aviation Ministry has not responded to this request yet
Flights from six cities - Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur, Chennai and Ahmedabad - will not land in Kolkata for two weeks starting Monday, airport authorities said on Saturday as the West Bengal government stepped up measures to contain the coronavirus.
The Civil Aviation Ministry agreed to suspend the flights following a request from the West Bengal government on June 30. The Bengal government had written to the secretary of the Civil Aviation Ministry to also stop flights from Indore and Surat. It wanted flights to two other airports in the state Andal and Bagdogra paused as well.
"West Bengal is also witnessing a steep rise in cases. A large number of cases has been reported from people coming in the State from outside with infection. Government of West Bengal has decided to stop or curtail movement of incoming flights and trains into the State," the letter read.
The state also wanted flights from other cities in the country reduced to one flight a week per airline. The Civil Aviation Ministry has not responded to that request yet.
Details on suspending Vande Bharat flights - which have been bringing in Indians stranded abroad - are also not clear.
India resumed domestic passenger flights from May 25, after a gap of two months following the nationwide COVID-19 lockdown. Scheduled international passenger flights are still suspended in India.
According to the Union Health Ministry, West Bengal has recorded 20,488 coronavirus cases including 717 deaths, with the maximum numbers are from Kolkata, adjoining Howrah and the district of North 24 Parganas.
With more than 94,000 cases of coronavirus, Delhi has the third highest numbers in the country, next to Maharashtra, where the bulk of 1.92 lakh cases are reported from Mumbai. Tamil Nadu has the second highest number of cases, most of which are located in state capital Chennai.
Earlier, several states including Karnataka and Tamil Nadu had imposed restrictions on people coming from Maharashtra or other states where the infection rate was high.