India to resume int'l commercial flights from Dec 15; bars regular ops with 14 countries

The Ministry of Civil Aviation has announced that international flight operations will resume in India starting December 15. According to news agency ANI, the flights will, however, avoid regular operations to and from 14 countries. It has been reported that during the irregular operations from these 14 countries, the air bubble flight arrangements will be maintained. 

The 14 countries barred from services are South Africa, Brazil, Bangladesh, Botswana, China, Mauritius,  New Zealand, Zimbabwe, UK, France, Germany, Netherlands, Finland and Singapore. According to the ministry’s circular, India will resume 75% of pre-covid level operations under “air bubble” with countries that have been categorised as “at risk” by the Health Ministry and 50% of bilateral capacity entitlements with countries that are “at risk” but are not under the “air bubble” agreement with India. On the other hand, flight operations to and from countries free from “at risk” category will be at full capacity. 

However, the earlier ban on international flights extended from October 31 will continue till November 30. Currently, flights are allowed only on a few selected routes on a case-to-case basis.

The announcement comes just two days after Rajiv Bansal, Secretary of the Ministry of Civil Aviation said that the flights will resume soon. The international passenger flights were suspended in March 2020 owing to the onset of the COVID pandemic and the government had extended the suspension till 30 November 2021 in an order issued recently.

Image: PTI