Naidu asks airlines to restore normal ops from May 15 when air route NOATM ends

NEW DELHI: Union aviation minister Ram Mohan Naiduhas asked airlines to “resume normal schedules from Thursday (May 15) across all 32 airports” which were reopened on Monday morning after early six days. Naidu held a meeting with all airlines on Tuesday where he directed them to ramp up operations.The notice to airmen (NOTAM) for temporary closure of 25 segments of air traffic service routes within the Delhi and Mumbai flight information regions is valid till 5.29 am on Thursday. Once this NOTAM lapses, all air routes in the north and west will be available. With all the 32 airports open now, airlines have been asked to restore normal operations then.“Chaired a review meeting with all airlines and senior officials…. With the NOTAM ending on May 15, I suggested that airlines resume their normal schedules from (then) across all 32 airports for which the NOTAM was issued. All airlines responded positively to this suggestion,” Naidu said on X.Airlines had started resuming flights from Monday itself but drone activity late that night in some cities led to Air India and IndiGo cancelling their flights to the region on Tuesday. These included AI to and from Jammu, Leh, Jodhpur, Amritsar, Bhuj, Jamnagar, Chandigarh and Rajkot. And IndiGo flights to and from Srinagar, Jammu, Leh, Chandigarh, Amritsar and Rajkot were cancelled on Tuesday and “will progressively resume” from Wednesday, the airline said.Meanwhile, Air India Express, SpiceJet and others resumed some suspended flights on Tuesday.SpiceJet said it resumed scheduled flights to Srinagar from Tuesday and that Haj flights from Srinagar will start on Wednesday. “SpiceJet will resume its Haj 2025 operations from Srinagar, operating two flights to Medina using wide-body Airbus A340 aircraft, each accommodating 324 passengers. SpiceJet is facilitating the travel of about 15,500 Haj pilgrims this year,” the airline said.Air India Express said it resumed Hindon-Bengaluru; Jammu–Delhi; Jammu–Srinagar and Srinagar–Delhi on Tuesday. Hindon-Mumbai is scheduled to resume from Wednesday and “reinstatement of other flights, including international services from Amritsar, is expected to follow from May 15,” the airline said.Naidu asked if airlines needed any support in restoration of services. “We have sought exemption from route dispersal guidelines (RDG) for this period as some of the closed airports fell in that category,” said people at the meeting. RDG are meant to ensure air connectivity to remote and underserved regions and mandate airlines allocate a portion of their capacity to routes in specific categories, including those in the North-East, Jammu & Kashmir, and Andaman & Nicobar Islands. Star Air operated its Hindon-Adampur flight on Tuesday. On landing, the pilot thanked the ATC at the IAF base “thank you for keeping us safe. On behalf of a grateful nation, please accept our immense gratitude. Jai Hind.” The ATC replied, saying, “Jai Hind.”Some airlines are going to make inflight announcements expressing the nation’s gratitude to our brave armed forces