India-Bangladesh flights to resume from Sept 3 under air-bubble arrangement; read details

After four months of suspension due to the COVID-19 outbreak, flight operations between India and Bangladesh will restart under  the air-bubble agreement. The Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) has announced that flight operations will resume from 3 September.

"The air bubble may be resumed w.e.f. 03.09.21 till resumption of scheduled international passenger flights," MoCA letter read.

Guidelines set for Air bubble flights between India, Bangladesh

In view of COVID-19, Indian government has set certain restrictions like limited number of passengers per aircraft and strict health measures to be followed by travellers on board. 

"Passengers travelling from Bangladesh to India shall be mandatorily subjected to self-paid confirmatory molecular tests on arrival at the Indian airports concerned (port of entry). Therefore instead of a blanket restriction of 140 passengers per aircraft it is proposed that the capacity may be restricted to a specific percentage of the installed seat capacity of the aircraft (say 90 per cent or 95 per cent)," MoCA Said.

There will be seven flights per week, for any country carrier, in the air bubble at first. "This Ministry has examined the proposal in consultation with the health authorities of India and would like to propose resumption of operations under the Air Bubble with 7 frequencies per week (for carriers of either country)," the Indian aviation ministry said.

As a result, those with tourist visas are prohibited from entering the country. "The Government of India would be applicable to such passengers, as amended from time to time. It may be noted that passengers holding tourist visas are not allowed to enter India as on date," the MoCA said.

COVID-19 cases in India

India on Saturday reported 46,759 new cases of coronavirus. This marked a third consecutive day with a daily caseload of over 40,000. Twenty-eight states contributed 89.52% of all cases, with Kerala alone accounting for 32,801 cases. Overall, India's recovery rate is at 97.56% after 31,374 people recovered in the last 24 hours, according to the health ministry's data provided on Saturday. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare had reported on Friday that the COVID-19 vaccination coverage of India has reached the cumulative number of 61.22 crore along with a distribution of 79,48,439 vaccine doses in the past 24 hours. This was accomplished after 66,60,983 sessions.

(With inputs from ANI)

(Picture Credit: Pixabay)