The Civil Aviation Ministry of India on Friday said the scheduled international flights to and from the country would be resumed from December 15. While the Central Government has barred 14 countries, those have reported a rising infection rate.
The ministry, in a statement, said the matter of resumption of scheduled commercial international passenger services had been examined in consultation with the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Ministry of External Affairs and the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
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“The matter has been reviewed and the competent authority has decided to resume the scheduled commercial international passenger services to and from India with effect from December 15, 2021. Accordingly, the scheduled international commercial passenger services to/from India shall remain suspended till 23:59 hours IST of 14″ December 2021.”, a Director General of Civil Aviation circular released on Friday said.
The UK, France, Germany, Netherlands, Finland, South Africa, Brazil, Bangladesh, Botswana, China, Mauritius, New Zealand, Zimbabwe, and Singapore list those 14 barred countries.
The decision has been reportedly taken in consultation with the Union Health Ministry in the wake of the Covid scenario globally, especially the emergence of new variants.
Due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, scheduled international flights had been suspended in India since March 23 last year.
“Resumption of scheduled commercial international passenger services with effect from December 15, 2021 would imply reversion to bilaterally agreed capacity entitlements and termination of air bubble arrangements. However, due to prevailing Covid-19 situation, the capacity entitlements shall be as per the category of countries based on enlistment of countries as “at-risk” from time to time by the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare (MoHFW),” the DGCA announcement said.
As per the announcement, if a country has been identified to be “at-risk” of Covid-19 and has an air bubble agreement with India, then “75 per cent of pre-COVID scheduled international flight operations of Indian or foreign carrier whichever is higher or a minimum of seven frequencies per week subject to availability of entitlements under bilateral agreements will be permitted”.
