All international commercial passenger flights will remain suspended till April 14, aviation regulator DGCA announced on Thursday, amid a nationwide lockdown to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on March 19had announced that no international commercial passenger flight operations willtake place in India from 1.30 am on March 23 to 5.30 am on March 29.
“In continuation of circular-II dated 19.3.2020 issuedon the subject cited-above, it has been decided that all scheduledinternational commercial passenger services shall remain closed till 1830 hrsGMT (0000 hrs of Indian Standard Time) of April 14, 2020,” the aviationregulator said.
“However, this restriction will not apply tointernational all-cargo operations and flights specifically approved by theDGCA,” it said.
The government suspended domestic passenger flightoperations from midnight on March 24.
There are 649 coronavirus positive cases in the country and13 people have died due to it till now, according to the Union health ministry.Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced acomplete lockdown across the country for 21 days from Tuesday midnight,asserting that this is necessary for a decisive battle against the coronavirus.