The chartered flights coming from abroad are packed with foreigners arriving for X-mas and New Year holidays, but they are avoiding Mumbai and disembarking at airports in other states to evade the mandatory quarantine conditions imposed by the Maharashtra government.
The travel agencies which are handling the Indian leg of their travel plans say they are flooded with requests by chartered flight operators seeking connecting domestic flights for their passengers who wanted to reach Mumbai.
The top destinations of these chartered flights are Goa, Dubai and Maldives.
In light of the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) strain that has been detected in the United Kingdom (UK), the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maharashtra state government has issued an order to include Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for international passengers arriving from Europe, South Africa, and the Middle East.
According to the new order, asymptomatic passengers who have arrived in the aforementioned flights will not be required to immediately undergo an RT-PCR test. Instead, they will now be taken to a "paid institutional quarantine facility (hotel)".
However, RT-PCR test will be conducted between the fifth to the seventh day at the hotels, the cost of which will have to be borne by the quarantined passengers, the order states.
These include mandatory 15 days institutional quarantine for passengers coming in from Europe and Middle East. Passengers coming from other international destinations other than Europe and the Middle East will have to undergo home quarantine.
The circular had also mentioned that considering the prevailing situation in the UK, the Indian government has decided that all flights originating from the UK to India shall be temporarily suspended till 11:59 pm, December 31.
Airlines operating flights to/from India from other countries shall not board any passenger from the UK to India and shall ensure that no passenger coming from the UK is boarded in the flight for any destination in India either directly or indirectly.
