Domestic Travel In India During COVID

Recently I took a domestic flight from Delhi to Pune through Air India Airline. It was my first day outside home, since March. Everything seemed normal but weird, nothing like before. Even though more people can be seen on the roads, shops are open, transport is busy and travelers are moving here and there with their baggage at airport but still something is missing. What is that something ? I guess you know that already 🙂

I wanted to share the necessary details and norms, for travel in India in current situation.

Must Have Items :-

1. Boarding Pass (printed or mobile)

2. Aarogya Setu Mobile App (Government app for COVID assessment)

3. Health Undertaking Confirmation ( Mandatory to fill during online check-in )

4. Government Issued ID (Original – Aadhar, PAN, Voter ID, Passport etc. )

At The Airport :-

1. Bags must go through disinfection machine, just outside airport entrance for sanitation.

2. Airline representative will provide health-declaration form to all travelers. It contains passenger name, contact number, arrival city, destination city, destination address, flight no. , seat no. , medical questions etc to fill.

3. Boarding pass and ID must be shown to security personnel, from safe distance through mirror, at the entrance.

4. Once permitted, body temperature will be checked for COVID test along with Aarogya Setu app installed on traveler’s mobile phone.

If all cleared, you are allowed to enter

Baggage Check-In And Seat Allocation :-

1. Boarding pass needs to be given to airline executive and baggage to be submitted for check-in.

2. Health undertaking confirmation e-mail to be shown to executive.

3. Gate and other details along with physical boarding pass will be provided by executive

Security:-

Not much difference in security, except maintaining social distance.

At The Gate :-

Just before boarding, all passengers will be provided PPE kits which contains mask, sanitizers and face-shield and additional gloves, hair & shoe covers and disposable gown for middle seat passengers.

While boarding, health declaration form, earlier provided, will be collected by airline staff.

My flight had layover of 55 minutes in Indore city, where whole flight was sanitized. We all were sitting inside during the process, while Indore passengers vacated the plane .

Once flight reached at the destination i.e. Pune, all passengers stepped out of the plane, while maintaining social distance, and were provided a form which required information such as name, flight, seat no. , destination address, phone number and health questionnaire.

After collection of the baggage, at the exit gate, same form had to be submitted to the authorized person and he asked the basic details and plans of further travel. He applied home quarantine stamp on my hand.

Quarantine rules differ from state to state, like for Pune it’s mandatory 14 days home quarantine. Make sure to check the rules of the state you are traveling to –

State-wise-regulations

Hope this helps. If you any question or doubt, leave your comments below.

Stay safe !

PEACE