Flights will operate to and from the Calcutta airport during the lockdown on Thursday, Saturday and next Wednesday, airport officials said, but there might not be any public transport for passengers.

A state government official said flights were not on the list of exempted services in the order issued for the lockdown on July 23, 25 and 29.

“Our orders are very clear as to what all services are exempted. Flights and trains don’t fall in the exempted category,” a state government official said on Wednesday. “But if flights operate, we will not stop them.”

The official did not comment on whether public transport would be available at the airport for arriving passengers or for those on their way to the airport to catch a flight. The state government has not exempted public transport either.

Another government official said they were yet to decide whether people travelling in private vehicles to the airport would be stopped or not.

There was confusion throughout the day. State government officials informed the airport authorities that there would be no public transport available at the airport for passengers or employees of the airport and airlines.

“We had informed the airlines about the state government’s decision,” said an airport official.

Metro reported on Wednesday that the airport authorities had requested the state government to provide public transport for passengers.

The ministry of civil aviation informed Calcutta airport officials on Wednesday evening that the state government had agreed to allow operation of scheduled flights on the lockdown days. “Airlines have been requested to club flights and shift afternoon flights to evening as far as possible,” said an airport official. He did not explain why flights should be shifted to evening.

Around 45 domestic flights take off from the city and a similar number arrive every day.

Several airlines said they were cancelling some flights because of poor passenger load. Air India said it had cancelled its flights to Agartala and Dibrugarh on Thursday because most passengers had cancelled their bookings. A spokesperson for the airline said the schedule for Saturday would be decided later.

IndiGo said it was cancelling six-odd flights on the three days. “There are many cancellations and we are clubbing some of the flights,” said an IndiGo official.

Passengers were confused, too. Airport officials said that throughout the day they received calls from passengers asking whether flights would operate.

Park Street resident Reema Wadhwa, who has been stuck with her six-month-old son in Calcutta since his birth, is scheduled to take a flight to Lucknow on Saturday. Her husband Deepak Khatwani is scheduled to drive down from Delhi to Lucknow and take a flight to Calcutta on Friday.

“We have plans to fly to Lucknow and drive back to Delhi from there. But I don't know what to do,” said Reema, who has thrice cancelled tickets.

The state government has asked the Centre not to allow flights to operate from six cities, including Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai, to Calcutta till July 31 because of the high incidence of Covid-19 there.

The ban, announced on July 6, was to continue till July 19 but later extended till the end of the month. Around 25 flights have been cancelled each way to and from Calcutta because of the ban.