Brave 5-year-old flies back home to Bengaluru alone from Delhi as domestic flights resume

Domestic air travel resumed on Monday after two months of COVID-19 induced lockdown, at Bengaluru's Kempegowda International Airport, with a total of 74 Air Traffic Movements till Monday evening. 

"As on 17:00 hrs (5 pm) on May 25, 2020, the airport registered a total of 74 Air Traffic Movements, including 43 departures and 31 arrivals," Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL), that operates the city airport, said in a release.

'He has travelled alone from Delhi'

Among the incoming passengers was a five-year-old Vihaan Sharma who flew back to Bengaluru alone from Delhi and was received by his mother. His mother told reporters that he was coming to Bengaluru after three months. Vihaan was with his grandparents in Delhi.

Bearing a “special category” ticket, the boy was donning protective gear when he met his mother. "Welcome home, Vihaan! #BLR Airport is constantly working towards enabling the safe return of all our passengers," the Bangalore International Airport Limited, which manages the city's Kempegowda International Airport(KIA), tweeted.

Domestic flights resume in Karnataka 

The Karnataka government has said that the people coming from high COVID-19 prevalent states-Maharashtra, Gujarat, Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh- will have to undergo institutional quarantine for a period of seven days and charges to be borne by the passengers.

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After their COVID test comes out negative (swab should be taken between 5-7 day after their arrival) using pool testing, they should be sent for home quarantine for another seven days. Those coming from other low prevalence states have been asked to follow 14 days of home quarantine. 

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In special cases where businessmen are coming for urgent work, they are permitted without the necessity of quarantine if they bring the negative test report of COVID-19 from ICMR approved laboratory and it should not be more than two days older from the date of travel.

In case they don't have such certificate they have to undergo coronavirus test and stay in paid institution quarantine till the test result comes out.

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Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said that the flights restarted operating after a long of “hard negotiations” owing to disagreements from many states that feared a rise in the number of infections.

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(With agency inputs)