Mumbai: Chaos and confusion ensued at India’s two busiest airports — Delhi and Mumbai — after the ban on flights from the UK, additional testing on incoming passengers, and, in Mumbai’s case, additional quarantine rules for passengers coming from Europe and the Middle East.
The countrywide ban on UK flights came into effect at 11:59 pm on Tuesday. Delhi airport late on Tuesday received two flights from the UK operated by Virgin Atlantic (11:15pm) and Vistara (11:45pm). While all incoming passengers and crew were tested for Covid-19, there was a six-hour gap between testing passengers of one flight and another, a person close to the development said.
Due to the cascading delay, passengers and crew who disembarked from the Vistara flight took as long as 12 hours to leave the airport, the person said. The chaos at the airport subsided gradually on Wednesday after the ban on UK flights came into effect. Two days of fresh quarantine rules in Maharashtra saw long queues and…