Flight services resume from Hyderabad

A Trujet flight to Vidyanagar in Karnataka with 12 passengers was the first flight to be operated from the Hyderabad airport on Monday as domestic air travel resumed in the country after two months of COVID-19 induced lockdown. The flight left at 0806 AM, airport sources said.

An Air Asia flight from Bengaluru with 104 passengers was the first flight to arrive at the Hyderabad airport which landed at 0820 AM, they said.

State Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar visited the airport, along with other officials, and expressed satisfaction over the arrangements.

"Everything is very normal. We are following government of India guidelines," he said.

About 19 flights are arriving and an equal number are leaving, according to him.

"...The number is little low. There will be about 1600 passengers arriving here and about similar numbers will be going out, he told reporters at the airport.

Talking about the arrangements at the airport, he said everything has been sanitized and people, who arrive at the airport from other destinations, are checked for temperature.

If somebody is having temperature or showing visible symptoms, they will be taken to a triage for checking and then the prescribed protocol is followed.

Others, if they have already downloaded the Arogya Setu app, they are allowed to go home.

The Telangana government's goal is to see that people arrive safely without any inconvenience and are able to do their business smoothly, he said.

He hoped that number of flights would double from Tuesday and regular traffic and business starts at the Hyderabad airport.

Replying to a query, he said the state government has made it clear that anybody coming to Telangana does not have to go into quarantine.

The passengers, who arrive, are already checked from where they started and they would not be allowed to board the flight if they have high temperature or visible symptoms, he said.

A routine check-up is done once they arrive to see if they have temperature, he said.

If they do not have temperature and if they already have Arogya Setu app, they are allowed to go, he said.

The state government has said those arriving in the state by domestic flights, trains and by road will be checked.

If they have symptoms, medical tests would be conducted and they will be sent to quarantine centres.

If they do not have any symptoms, they can go home but observe self-protection measures, according to an official release.