No meals on domestic flights below 2-hour duration: Government

New Delhi, Apr 12: The Ministry of Civil Aviation on Monday directed airlines to serve inflight meals only on those domestic flight that have a duration of over two hours, in wake of the sharp surge in COVID-19 cases. No restrictions on inflight meals on international flights has been imposed yet.

The norms will come into effect from April 15, the fresh order stated. For flights longer than 2 hours, the servicing of meals will be staggered among adjacent seats, it added.

Various strains of SARS-CoV-2, including the UK, South Africa and Brazil variants, are circulating in India and have been termed as highly transmissible by experts.

India on Monday recorded the biggest single-day jump of 1,68,912 fresh COVID-19 cases that took the infection tally to 1,35,27,717, according to Union health ministry data.

Ten states -- Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Rajasthan -- have shown a steep rise in daily cases, accounting for 83.02 per cent of the infections reported in a day.