COVID-19: Air India offers 'One Free Change' of date, flight number till March 31

New Delhi [India], January 9 : Air India is offering 'One Free Change' of date or flight number or sector for domestic tickets with confirmed travel till March 31, in view of the current prevailing situation of COVID-19.
In a tweet today, Air India said, "#FlyAI: In view of recent uncertainties due to surge in COVID cases, Air India is offering ONE FREE CHANGE of date or flight number or sector for all domestic tickets (098) with confirmed travel on/before 31.03.22."
As COVID-19 cases continue to surge across the country, the aviation sector in the country seems to be reeling under pressure.
IndiGo airlines also on Sunday anticipated that around 20 per cent of its current scheduled operations to be withdrawn from service.
IndiGo, further said that it has waived change fees as scores of people are altering their travel plans.
In its official statement, IndiGo said, "Owing to the increasing number of Omicron infections, large numbers of IndiGo customers are changing their travel plans. In response to customer needs, IndiGo is waiving change fees and is offering free changes for all new and existing bookings made up to January 31, for flights up to March 31, 2022. With the reduced demand, we will also be selectively withdrawing some of our flights from service."
"Where possible, cancellations of flights will be done at least 72 hours in advance and customers will be moved to the next available flight and will also be able to change their travel through the use of Plan B on our website," the statement said.
The official statement added, "Since our call centre is currently handling a large volume of calls, we are encouraging our customers to use our digital channels where possible. We anticipate that around 20 per cent of our current scheduled operations will be withdrawn from service."
Amid a surge in the COVID-19 cases, the Central government on Friday announced a seven-day mandatory home quarantine for all international arrivals in the country. All the international arrivals in the country will have to observe a seven-day mandatory home quarantine with effect from January 11 till further orders.
As per the order issued by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Friday, travellers from specified countries at risk will at first, submit a sample for the post-arrival COVID-19 test at the point of arrival (self-paid). Such travellers will be required to wait for their test results at the arrival airport before leaving or taking a connecting flight.
"If tested negative they will follow, home quarantine for seven days and shall undertake RT-PCR test on the eighth day of arrival in India. Travellers shall also be required to upload results of repeat RT-PCR test for COVID-19 done on the eighth day on Air Suvidha portal. If negative, they will further self-monitor their health for the next seven days. However, if such travellers are tested positive, their samples should be further sent for genomic testing at INSACOG laboratory network," read the order copy.
India reported 1,59,632 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, taking the daily positivity rate in the country to 10.21 per cent, said the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Sunday. With this, the COVID-19 tally has risen to 35,528,004 in the country.
According to the Health Ministry, a total of 3,623 cases of the Omicron variant of coronavirus have been reported in India so far. The number of recovered patients from the variant rises to 1,409.
Maharashtra accounts for the highest number of Omicron cases (1009), followed by Delhi (513) and Karnataka (441).The Ministry further informed that the active caseload in the country currently stands at 5,90,611 which accounts for 1.66 per cent of the country's total number of cases.
On December 2, India detected its first case of Omicron Variant of COVID-19 in Karnataka.