In response to the Centre's advisory to restrict international traffic from Turkey and Malaysia in the wake of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, airline major IndiGo will cancel its flight operations to these countries.

Accordingly, the airline will cancel its services between Delhi-Istanbul and Chennai-Kuala Lumpur from March 18, 2020 until March 31, 2020. 

"The airline has already cancelled flights between Bangalore-Kuala Lumpur until March 31, 2020 and Delhi-Kuala Lumpur until April 30, 2020," the airline said in a statement.

"These are purely temporary and precautionary measures. We understand that these measures will cause inconvenience to our customers and we will be refunding the full amount to the impacted passengers," it said.

Earlier in the day, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said in a circular: "Travel of passengers from Afghanistan, Philippines, Malaysia to India is prohibited with immediate effect."

"No flight shall take off from these countries to India after 15:00 hours Indian Standard Time (IST). The airline shall enforce this at the port of initial departure," the DGCA said.

"This instruction is a temporary measure and shall be in force till March 31, 2020 and will be reviewed subsequently," it added.

Earlier, GoAir had announced that it is temporarily suspending all international operations, starting March 17, 2020 until April 15, 2020. 

The airline has also initiated a temporary rotational leave without pay policy. The company claims this will not only help it counter the short-term reduction in capacity but will also ensure that a cross section of its employees stay away from the workplace to ensure business continuity.

“Despite going over and above to implement these safeguards, the sharp decline in air travel that we are currently experiencing is unprecedented,” GoAir said in a statement.

In light of the changes being made to travel plans on account of COVID-19, GoAir is also offering customers a waiver on change fees.

With IANS inputs