Aviation stocks rally up to 10% after govt announces domestic passenger flights to resume from Monday

The day after Union Minister for Civil Aviation Hardeep Singh Puri announced that domestic passenger flights would resume from 25 May in a calibrated manner, aviation stocks on Thursday rallied up to 10 percent in opening trade.

InterGlobe Aviation shares zoomed 9.88 percent to Rs 1,002 on the BSE.

#CNBCTV18Market | IndiGo surges as Govt approves domestic airline operations from May 25 pic.twitter.com/NCu2aGYWFj

— CNBC-TV18 (@CNBCTV18Live) May 21, 2020

SpiceJet also jumped 4.88 percent to Rs 42.95 – its upper circuit limit.

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All scheduled commercial passenger flights have been suspended in India since 25 March, when the government imposed a lockdown to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus, PTI said.

“Domestic civil aviation operations will recommence in a calibrated manner from Monday, 25 May, 2020. All airports and air carriers are being informed to be ready for operations from 25th May,” Puri said on Twitter.

Domestic civil aviation operations will recommence in a calibrated manner from Monday 25th May 2020.

All airports & air carriers are being informed to be ready for operations from 25th May.

SOPs for passenger movement are also being separately issued by @MoCA_GoI.

— Hardeep Singh Puri (@HardeepSPuri) May 20, 2020

All passenger flight services were stopped in late March following the announcement of a nationwide lockdown to flatten the curve of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, cargo, medical evacuation and special flights were allowed by the aviation regulator DGCA to operate during the lockdown period.

During the time of lockdown, the government had started flights under Mission Vande Bharat to bring back stranded Indians from other countries.

In an interview to the Economic Times, Puri said that the ministry has been ready to resume domestic civil aviation for the last one week or so. He added that after receiving green signal from the government, it will take two or three days for the airlines to begin bookings and calibrate the number of flights that can resume operations.