Flights from Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and three other cities to Calcutta will operate on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays in the first two of weeks in September and Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays after that, civil aviation ministry officials have said.

The dates have been fixed keeping in mind the three lockdown days chief minister Mamata Banerjee had announced on Wednesday — September 7 (Monday), 11 (Friday) and 12 (Saturday).

“Between September 1 and 13, flights from Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Pune and Nagpur to Calcutta will operate on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. From September 14, they will operate on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. The airlines have been informed about the days,” an official in the civil aviation ministry said.

The Centre had on July 6 suspended flights between the six cities and Calcutta, following a request from the Bengal government, because of a surge in the number of Covid-19 cases there.

The chief minister announced on Wednesday that the flights could operate three days a week from September 1. Soon after Mamata’s announcement, the state government wrote a letter to the civil aviation ministry, formally informing the Centre about the decision.

Officials of private airlines said they would start filing applications for slots.

The civil aviation minis-try guidelines allow 45 per cent of domestic flights on respective routes compared with the pre-Covid times. Initially, the ministry was allowing 33 per cent of the flights.

Airlines had been operating 25-odd flights from the six cities to Calcutta daily since the resumption of domestic flights till the ban kicked in on July 6. “It was 33 per cent of the flights that used to operate on these routes before Covid-19 struck. Now, under the

revised guidelines, more flights can operate but that would depend on the airlines,” said an official of the Calcutta airport.

Tour operators said they had started getting queries from passengers. “Many Calcuttans are still stuck in places who are unable to come back because the flights were stalled. They can now come to Delhi or Mumbai on these days and take a connecting flight to Calcutta,” said

Anil Punjabi, chairman, east, Travel Agents Federation of India.

The Centre has relaxed quarantine norms and a passenger taking an international evacuation flight to India need not go for quarantine at the entry point. The passen-ger has to test negative for Covid-19 within 96 hours before the journey to become eligible to board an evacuation flight.