Aviation minister asks airlines to resume operations at 32 shut airports from May 15

New Delhi: Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu expressed hope on Tuesday night that airlines will restore normal operations at the 32 closed airports beginning May 15. He issued a statement to this effect following a review meeting in New Delhi with top authorities and representatives from all airlines.

According to TNIE, the Minister said, "With the NOTAM (Notice to Airmen) ending on 15th May, I suggested that airlines resume their normal schedules from the 15th across all 32 airports for which the NOTAM was issued. All airlines responded positively to this suggestion."

A Ministry source said, "At present, partial operations are taking place. The full-fledged operations will resume from May 15. This was the outcome after the meeting held on Tuesday," TNIE reported.

The Airports Authority of India (AAI) issued a NOTAM on May 9 to close 32 airports in North and Western India till May 15 (5.29 a.m.), as a precautionary measure following the beginning of Operation Sindoor on May 7.

AAI's updated NOTAM stated that the airports would be open for commercial operations from Monday (May 12), but leading airlines such as Indigo and Air India had publicly stated that they would not run flights to certain airports on Monday and Tuesday (May 13).

This was due to unsubstantiated allegations of Pakistani drone attacks in several places. Indigo flew from Delhi to Amritsar but had to return owing to a sudden blackout enforced in Amritsar.